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Class LB 101.5 

Book • D 

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



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PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 



BY 



S. M. BARRETT 

PROFESSOR OF PEDAGOGY, CENTRAL STATE NORMAL 
SCHOOL. EDMOND, OKLA. 



>x«< 



BOSTON, U.S.A. 

D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 

1908 



) wo oouies HeceivdtS 

JUL 3 IS»08 



Copyright, 1908, 
By S. M. BARRETT. 






PREFACE 

This work is designed to present in a brief, concise 
manner a few principles and rules of teaching, and to 
discuss their application to methods and management 
in public or common schools. Only such rules and 
principles are presented as the author has been able to 
apply successfully year after year in actual schoolroom 
work. Necessarily, therefore, the work is brief; but 
it is hoped that it is vitalized by the true teaching spirit, 
and that being born of experience it will be of practical 
value. 

If this volume renders assistance to students in normal 
schools and training classes, to young teachers who 
have not received a course of instruction in a profes- 
sional school, but who are compelled to prepare them- 
selves by independent efforts for the work of teaching, 
its purposes will have been accomplished. 

S. M. BARRETT. 
Central State Normal School, 

Edmond, Oklahoma. 



LSfiHARYof O0Na«tE33J 
5 wo Oooies KeceiveiS ! 

JUL 3 W8 
2-° J Jit 



Copyright, 1908, 
By S. M. BARRETT. 



PREFACE 

This work is designed to present in a brief, concise 
manner a few principles and rules of teaching, and to 
discuss their application to methods and management 
in public or common schools. Only such rules and 
principles are presented as the author has been able to 
apply successfully year after year in actual schoolroom 
work. Necessarily, therefore, the work is brief; but 
it is hoped that it is vitalized by the true teaching spirit, 
and that being born of experience it will be of practical 
value. 

If this volume renders assistance to students in normal 
schools and training classes, to young teachers who 
have not received a course of instruction in a profes- 
sional school, but who are compelled to prepare them- 
selves by independent efforts for the work of teaching, 
its purposes will have been accomplished. 

S. M. BARRETT. 
Central State Normal School, 

Edmond, Oklahoma. 



PART ONE 

METHODS 



PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

CHAPTER I 

IDEATION 

In order to secure the best results from a study of 
methods of teaching, it is well first to review briefly the 
psychological processes by which ideas are formed, and 
then to hold these processes of ideation firmly in mind 
as a means by which to determine the worth of proposed 
methods of instruction. For that reason this review of 
the processes of ideation is given. 

Sensation. — We shall begin with sensation, which is 
the earliest and most elementary of mental processes 
and may be denned as a mode of conscious experience 
in the use of an organ, or sense, of the body. This 
provisional definition of sensation serves to show that 
a study of elementary sensation is not of prime impor- 
tance in this discussion of ideation ; hence, the province 
of pure sensation will be overstepped and attention 
called to the process by which new sensations are de- 
termined or modified, not only by immediate sensations, 
but also by others more remote in time. This takes place 
by the new sensation reexciting former sensations. 

3 



4 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

Sensations are deepened by repetition, and the psy- 
chological importance of this consists in the fact that 
(the power of reproduction being assumed) it is possible 
for consciousness to combine earlier with later sensa- 
tions or experiences. Not only is this repetition valuable 
in deepening impressions and combining earlier with 
later sensations, but sometimes the influence of it, 
coupled with memory, will call up duplicates of sensa- 
tions which otherwise would not rise. 

Percepts. — The recall of an earlier sensation or 
experience does not amount to an accurate and distinct 
image of it, because reawakened sensations fuse imme- 
diately with the present sensation or sensations, and 
cannot be said to stand out as free and independent 
representations, but rather to undergo an involuntary 
recognition. This immediate and involuntary recogni- 
tion and fusing is called perception, and we may describe 
this psychological process of perception as the fusing 
of a reproduction and as actual sensation. The result, 
a percept, is therefore compounded out of representation 
and sensation without the representation coming into 
consciousness as a free or independent factor. Sensa- 
tions fuse only in case of similarity of the present and 
former sensations, and the more frequently this act is 
performed, the more easily and quickly will former sen- 
sations be recognized and percepts formed. The more 
percepts of a given subject are formed in the mind, the 
more permanent and valuable the result. 



IDEATION 5 

Memory Images. — From these percepts united with 
other sensations and other percepts come free ideas or 
memory images, and the more numerous the free ideas 
or memory images, the more there is formed in con- 
sciousness an independent field of free ideas or memory 
images which confront with more or less independence 
all sensations and percepts that may arise from imme- 
diate environment. This field of memory images enables 
the mind properly to classify and fully recognize all 
new sensations, images, and percepts that may be pre- 
sented. These free ideas combat new ideas in such a 
way as to subject them to strict analysis, which may 
result in adoption, modification, or rejection. 

Thus we have in our minds two distinct currents of 
thought, one the modified, rising from immediate envi- 
ronment, and the other the free, rising from representa- 
tion. We cannot completely isolate ourselves from 
the external or immediate ones, because sensations are 
received at every instant, even when we are principally 
occupied with free ideas. One of these currents might 
be called the ascending current in the mind, and the 
other the horizontal. Equilibrium can never, by the 
very nature of the case, be established between these 
two opposing currents. Frequently by our own will we 
abandon ourselves almost completely to the one or the 
other of these currents, of thought, — as to immediate 
sensation when listening to music, and, again, to repre- 
sentation when concentrating our mind upon a book 
or lesson. 



6 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

Sometimes the attention (which may be denned as 
inhibition of all impressions and memory images except 
those to which the mind is directed, or as " intensified 
consciousness") can be directed almost wholly to one 
of these trends of thought. At other times the atten- 
tion vibrates from one to the other, and we have the 
so-called divided attention. But it should be borne in 
mind that attention is necessary in all the processes of 
ideation. Attention, however, is never absolute, but 
merely relative. The process of attention is, therefore, 
the relative inhibition of one or the other of these two 
currents of thought, the modified or the free. Both ele- 
ments or currents are present in every state of con- 
sciousness, but with different degrees of strength. In 
some moments we are almost wholly under the control 
of sensation and perception ; in others, of reflection and 
deep thought; but never are we under the control of 
both at the same time. 

Concepts.— The process of associating or fusing the 
common properties of images and percepts is called con- 
ception, and the result a concept, which is the finished 
product in the process of ideation. It should be re- 
membered that in order to obtain a valuable concept it 
is necessary to have a predominant interest, so that 
the attention may be firmly directed to such images 
and percepts as are employed in forming the concept ; 
also that the concept may be vivid rather than indis- 
tinct. 



IDEATION 7 

It will be observed that the elements in ideation are 
arranged as follows : first, sensations ; second, percepts ; 
third, mental images, or free ideas ; fourth, a concept. 
The first three processes, sensation, perception, and the 
forming of memory images, should be experienced many 
times, and each of the four processes should be per- 
formed with close attention if the final result — the con- 
cept, which is to become a permanent mental equipment 
— is to be of much value. 




Sensations 



Sensations 



If these principles are applied to schoolroom work, 
the absolute necessity of performing these processes in 
the order given should be obvious. To illustrate : if a 
child undertakes to form a concept from one memory 
image, he might only make the mistake that the little 
son of a chaplain of a penitentiary made. As this five- 
year-old boy was finishing looking through an elemen- 



8 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

tary book, he came to the picture of a zebra and said, 
" Mamma, here is a convict mule ! " He had formed 
but one percept and had but one memory image of indi- 
viduals in stripes, and whatever wore stripes it seemed 
to him must be a convict; hence, his formation of an 
imperfect and immature concept. He had not had 
enough repetitions of sensations and percepts ; hence, the 
concept was not in accordance with psychological prin- 
ciples and was unreliable. 

Numerous other illustrations might be added to show 
the correctness of these statements concerning the 
essential processes of ideation ; but since this work is in- 
tended primarily for teachers, those who have some 
knowledge of psychology, it is not thought necessary. 

Those who undertake to teach should hold in mind 
the processes of ideation and see to it that their methods 
of instruction do not violate these psychological princi- 
ples. 



Perception supplies raw material, conception elaborates crude 
percepts into finished concepts. Percepts must be, in order that 
concepts may be. Here we find the key to correct teaching. 

— Joseph Baldwin, 

Percepts are stored in memory, and from this accumulated store 
we draw as we need. Out of percepts we build concepts ; but per- 
cepts themselves give us many of our keenest pleasures and purest 
delights, as in the colors of a sunset sky, or an October forest, or in 
the blending of musical tones. — Ruric N. Roark. 



CHAPTER II 

THE RECITATION 

Mental Growth. — It is usually true that a student's 
advancement will be in proportion to his diligence in 
study, and this is what we naturally expect. But there 
have always been enough instances of successful men 
who were poor students to keep some excellent people 
explaining, and to afford great comfort to indolent and 
conceited pupils who want the reward of hard work 
without being willing to do the work. Then there are, 
in every community, people who have no aspiration for 
mental or moral improvement. Their feeling toward 
all that is above them is one of envy and hate, with no 
ambition to attain this excellence themselves. 

If then we desire to promote mental growth, let us 
try to apprehend clearly the conditions and the means 
of this growth. There are certain processes of devel- 
opment which go on in us unconsciously. This passive 
growth is no more credit to us than our increase in 
stature or avoirdupois. Such growth, however, never 
raised any person above mediocrity. The growth that 
leads to real excellence is always accompanied with 
conscious effort. 

Intellectual growth requires first, a consciousness of 
one's need of growth ; and second, a consciousness of one's 

9 



IO PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

capacity for growth. There are some people who feel 
no need of improvement ; they are self-complacent in 
the belief that they are already great. And there are 
some people whose sluggish and benighted minds never 
discover their own ignorance and feebleness. It is only 
as one realizes his need that we can hope for his 
improvement. 

Many who are conscious of their need distrust their 
capacity for growth. Faith in ourselves, in the ca- 
pacity of our faculties to respond to the demands that 
will be made upon them, is no less essential than the 
consciousness of our need of improvement. It is safe 
to say that no one ever attained to eminence who did 
not have a definite knowledge of his need of improve- 
ment and unbounded courage to follow out his plans 
for development. Pupils develop their powers by over- 
coming the difficulties which confront them. They that 
are over-confident neglect the preparation necessary to 
success. But they that are self-distrustful cannot rouse 
their powers to their fullest exertion, and are apt to 
yield to difficulties that might be overcome. It is the 
duty of the teacher to show the over-confident the need 
of preparation and to encourage the self-distrustful 
to undertake greater things. 

In earlier childhood great dependence should be 
placed on the elementary processes of ideation — gath- 
ering from immediate sensation ; but with more ad- 
vanced pupils the use of representation — free ideas or 
mental images — may be more fully relied upon. In 



THE RECITATION II 

every instance vigorous effort tozvard a definite aim 
should be the rule, and the teacher should never lose 
sight of the fact that the recitatio7i is for the benefit of 
the pupil ; hence, the pupils, not the teacher, should do 
the reciting. 

The application of the principles of mental growth to 
schoolroom instruction is essentially a study of the 
recitation, and hence is of vital importance. We shall 
therefore discuss in detail the different steps in the 
recitation, which are as follows: — 

a. Preparation. 

b. Presentation. 

c. Association. 

d. Recapitulation. 

e. Application. 

Preparation. — The assignment of the next lesson 
should usually be at the beginning of the recitation. 
Frequently it is not assigned until the end, and then 
in the hurry the teacher says, "Take the next two 
pages," or, " Take the next lesson," and the pupils go to 
their seats without any definite idea of what is expected 
of them and they become discouraged in their prepara- 
tion. A few words of wise discussion and instruction 
from the teacher at the time when the lesson is assigned 
would enable the pupils to proceed intelligently with 
their work. It should always be a part of the assign- 
ment of the new lesson to call attention to essentials ; 
to point out special difficulties ; and to give the neces- 



12 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

sary suggestions as to method of study. If the lessons 
are thus properly assigned, the pupils will not only 
know what the task is, but will also know how to accom- 
plish it. 

Not only is it important that the assignment should 
make plain what is to be learned and how the work is 
to be accomplished, but the programme and the manage- 
ment of the school should be so arranged that a pupil 
will not be allowed to turn from one lesson to another 
at every impulse. " A place for everything mid every- 
thing in its place ; " also " One thing at a time and that the 
right thing" are appropriate mottoes for study periods 
in the schoolroom. This would tend to prevent pupils 
from studying in a desultory manner and would insure 
honest and systematic effort on their part in preparing 
lessons. 

It is not the length of time spent on the lesson, but 
the intensity of the work, that counts. Therefore it is 
important that the pupils know the value of concentra- 
tion in the preparation of any and all lessons. They 
should be trained to bend their whole energies to the 
task at hand. 

Presentation. — When a pupil is called upon to recite, 
he should feel that this is his opportunity to express 
himself, and the teacher should see to it that the pupil 
does express himself and not repeat the words of the 
author in a meaningless, mechanical manner. To be 
sure that the pupil has expressed himself the teacher 



THE RECITATION 1 3 

should require frequent illustrations; in fact, illustration 
rather than definition should be the rule. It has been 
said that an ounce of illustration is better than a pound 
of definition. 

It would be valueless for the teacher to proceed in 
conducting a recitation without the attention of the 
whole class. " Yes " and " No " questions, so frequently 
asked, are usually void of any power to stimulate 
thought Questions should, of course, be simple and 
clear, so as to leave no doubt in the mind of the pupil as 
to what the teacher means, and they should also be 
given in logical sequence so as to prevent any confu- 
sion in the child's mind ; but these questions should be 
the outgrowth of the teacher's fuller knowledge of the 
subject and not stereotyped text-book questions. Under 
no condition should the teacher do the reciting. The 
only time at which the teacher should do the talking is 
when the pupils have expressed all they know of the 
subject and all that they could be reasonably expected 
to know. Then, and not until then, may the teacher 
offer some added suggestions to throw new light on the 
subject. 

Association. — Again and again the teacher will find 
it necessary to bring the new and the old ideas into 
relation that" they may become assimilated and familiar. 
The field of free ideas in the child's mind will help him 
to identify all new percepts, but the teacher must be 
sure by associating the unknown with the known that 



14 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

the child's mind performs this process correctly. Only 
by repetition and drill in a variety of methods, by 
numerous devices, illustrations, and careful question- 
ing, can the teacher know that this process has been 
accomplished. 

Recapitulation. — When the pupil can restate the 
whole theme of his lesson in a summary, the lesson has 
been well learned. The best way to train children to 
acquire this power is to require them to state the princi- 
pal thoughts that have been brought out in a recitation. 
The teacher should not direct by asking suggestive 
questions, but should require the pupil to make the 
selection of important topics and to discuss them in the 
order in which they occur in the lesson. In this work 
the teacher should be careful that the readier pupils do 
not trespass upon the rights of the slower ones and 
cheat them out of their opportunity. Each pupil should 
be held severally responsible for every important point 
made during the recitation, and should understand that 
he is required to give an account of it when called upon 
without being guided by suggestive questions from the 
teacher. 

Application. — The final purpose, of course, is to apply 
the knowledge gained to everyday life ; to bring school 
life into touch with everyday duties ; to find in the 
home the practical application of the themes treated in 
school. The cultural and the practical should be brought 
into complete harmony. 



THE RECITATION 1 5 

Occupational Education. — It is evident that the trend 
in education is now toward the useful, but this does not 
in any way imply that the tendency is away from the 
cultural. It implies simply that true culture may be ob- 
tained from practical as well as from obsolete subjects. 
This tendency toward what we shall term occupational 
education may be illustrated by familiar examples, and 
the conclusions drawn will then be forcibly impressed. 

For instance, if we asserted that teachers should 
receive normal (occupational) training ; that physicians 
and lawyers should have professional (occupational) 
training; or that ministers should be trained for the 
ministry (occupational) training, no one would deny it. 
The same line of reasoning will lead us to assert that 
the farmer, the mechanic, the housewife, — in fact, 
persons entering any occupation, — should, in addition to 
the usual cultural knowledge gained in school, receive 
some rudimentary occupational education to fit them 
better for their life work. 

A part of this result can be obtained if the teacher is 1 
tactful enough to apply the knowledge gained in the 
schools to such occupations as predominate in the com- 
munity in which he teaches. To illustrate : in a com- 
mercial center, when supplementary work is given in 
arithmetic, let it be calculations from the trades of the 
commercial world. In an agricultural community let it 
be calculations from the farm life, and always let there 
be calculations from the household. Not only may these 
applications be made in a study of arithmetic, but added 



i6 



PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 



material may be brought to each subject, and this added 
material used to illustrate and verify. By so doing the 
pupils will be better prepared for the various occupa- 
tions which they will enter. 

Questioning. — Socrates, the greatest questioner of the 
ages, sought to lead persons to see the defects of their 
own definitions or statements. The Socratic method of 
teaching may be illustrated by the following example : — 

Meno. Socrates, we come to you feeling strong and 
wise ; we leave you feeling helpless and ignorant. Why 
is this? 

Socrates. I will show you (calling up a young Greek 
and making a line in the sand). Boy, how long is this 
line ? 

Boy. It is a foot long, sir. 

Soc. How long is this line ? 

Boy. It is two feet long, sir. 

Soc. How much larger would be the square con- 
structed on the second line than on the first line ? 

Boy. It would be twice as large, sir. 

Under the direction of the boy, Socrates constructs 
two squares in the sand, thus : — 



THE RECITATION 



17 



Soc. How much larger than the first did you say 
the second square would be ? 

Boy. I said it would be twice as large. 

Soc. But how much larger is it ? 

Boy. It is four times as large. 

Soc. Thank you, my boy, you may go. Meno, that 
boy came to me full of confidence, thinking himself 
wise. I told him nothing. By a few simple questions 
I led him to see his errors and discover the truth. 
Though really wiser, he goes away feeling humbled. 

This is the method which practical teachers of to-day 
use — leading, by judicious questions, the young pupil 
to discover his own errors. 

Questions, whether oral or written, should be so ar- 
ranged as to bring out what the pupil knows and how 
he knows it, and to test his statements thoroughly. 

In oral questioning a good plan is to propound the 
question and then designate the pupil who is to recite. 
It is well to form a habit of asking a question but once ; 
for to repeat the question is to cultivate or allow inatten- 
tion in the recitation, which is one of the worst possible 
faults. 

Non-reciting pupils should never be allowed to ask 
questions while the teacher is conducting a recitation. 
Their wants can be attended to after the recitation is 
finished. Nothing should come between the teacher 
and the reciting pupils. 

It is well to encourage pupils to ask questions when 



18 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

there is a point in the lesson that they cannot under- 
stand, or when they desire more information than the 
text furnishes. But they should not be allowed to 
waste the time of the recitation with unnecessary or 
unimportant questions. 



A good recitation is one of the best tests of the pupil's moral 
character. It gives him an opportunity to describe himself. 

— William T. Harris. 

Give laggards and dullards a chance. After a pupil has made 
two or three failures call on another pupil to do the work, but do not 
forget to give the one who made the failure another trial. 

— /. IV. Patrick. 

Good methods of teaching are important, but they cannot supply 
the want of ability in the teacher. The Socratic method is good, but 
a Socrates behind the teacher's desk to ask questions is better. 

— Tho7nas M. Balliet. 



CHAPTER III 

READING 

The mental processes involved in reading and the 
consequent nature of the problems which its teaching 
presents form the content of this chapter. The men- 
tal processes in reading are discussed only in so far 
as methods of teaching will influence the learner. To 
the child it makes little difference what the mental pro- 
cesses are or whether he understands these processes; 
but to the teacher these processes determine what is 
correct and what is incorrect in methods of teaching 
this subject 

Psychology of Reading. — The understanding of 
speech is gained through a process of trial and error, 
the concepts being corrected and thoroughly established 
through frequent exemplification, and also through use 
in repeated, persistent practice. When a child enters 
school he has relatively few concepts of word sounds 
and no concepts of conventional word symbols. He 
has, however, a working vocabulary of several hundred 
words, the use of which he knows. The first step in the 
task of teaching reading is to familiarize the child with 
these same words in their written and printed forms. 

19 



20 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

The mastery of the system of conventional symbols 
in which written language consists is somewhat compli- 
cated by the fact that the ideas for which many of the 
words stand are only partly known, so that the young 
reader is confronted with a world of realities as well as 
with an unfamiliar set of signs. Translating the written 
symbols into mental images creates friction in the child's 
mind ; hence, the selection of reading matter should be 
from elements that are already familiar to the child, 
so that as nearly as possible his whole attention may 
be given to fixing in mind the relation between the sym- 
bol and that for which it stands. 

The means by which this task must be accomplished 
consists in the child's possession of oral speech, which 
enables him to translate the printed symbols directly 
into significant terms. It is this which differentiates 
learning to read from the acquisition of speech itself. 
In the earliest processes the child sets out with no such 
interpretive basis, but has to discover the meaning of 
each sound or each combination of sounds from the 
situation in which they are uttered and from the action 
with which they are associated. After the child has 
mastered oral speech, learning name words is compara- 
tively easy, but there still remains this difficulty : that 
in becoming conventional and abstract any logical rela- 
tion between the sound and the thing signified vanishes, 
and the child must ask and be told the meaning of each 
term. 

The only modification of this rule is embodied in the 



READING 21 

phonetic method by which the translation of any written 
combination into its auditory equivalent is performed 
according to definite rules. If our language were log- 
ically constructed, such a method would be of utmost 
value; but the value of this most excellent method is 
restricted in its application in proportion to the phonetic 
irregularities of the English language. 

The several steps in the formal teaching of reading 
are usually enumerated as follows : — 

First. Word mastery — recognizing a whole word in 
one mental effort. 

Second. Sight reading, or recognizing and culling at 
sight short sentences as wholes. 

Third. Getting the sense from the printed page. 

Fourth. Interpreting, or oral expression. 

To these we shall add another, — 

Fifth. Creating and fostering a taste for good litera- 
ture. 

First Step. — In this step the object should be asso- 
ciated with the word until the recalling of one suggests 
the other. Concepts are represented by words, — -by 
common nouns, — but these words are meaningless un- 
less they awaken in the mind of the child correspond- 
ing mental images or concepts already acquired. It is 
impossible to teach words that do not symbolize ideas 
already in the mind of the child. The teacher cannot 
give pupils ideas. Instruction can only awaken and 
enlarge what the mind has already acquired by its own 



22 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

activity. The clear recognition of these psychological 
facts is the beginning of success in teaching reading. 

Charts containing pictures of familiar objects, and, 
where possible, the objects themselves, are invaluable 
aids in associating words and ideas. Teachers should 
be in no hurry to get pupils to reading in the formal 
classes, but, rather, patiently train them to see the many 
things in the pictures or in the objects ; then require 
them to tell what they see. 

Words are learned in their written and printed forms 
that they may be used in these forms. Each word 
taken up should be practically mastered on the day that 
it is taken up, so that ever afterward it will be instantly 
recognized at sight by the child and he will be impelled 
to pronounce it properly and promptly. The proper 
mastery of a word means further that the sight of the 
word instantly calls into the child's mind the object or 
quality or act which the word represents. 

Mechanical word mastery comes first in the steps to 
be taken in the teaching of reading, because it makes 
possible the succeeding steps. Nearly all the words 
found in the first reader are words that are already used 
by the child in his oral vocabulary. 

Teachers should apply the sentence method with the 
words learned as soon as possible. The object of this 
is to do away with mere word calling. The blackboard 
is perhaps the best means of introducing the sentence 
method, for by it pupils may be early trained to see 
words in groups. This may be done by placing the 



READING 23 

sentence on the blackboard and asking the pupils to 
see what it says ; then erasing the sentence and having 
them tell what they read. 

Second Step. — This step in reading is simply an ex- 
tension of the first process of substituting sentences for 
words in sight recognition. Pupils, of course, should 
recognize the words which they learned in the first 
process ; but there are always new words in the lessons, 
so that the first step is necessarily continued while the 
second step is in process. Sometimes when children 
are learning to read, they hesitate to pronounce the 
words. When this is the case, it is evident that they 
are not reading, but have fallen back to the first step and 
are applying all their powers to recognizing the words. 
In such cases the preparation has not been sufficient. 
Pupils should not attempt to read a lesson aloud until 
all the new words and new ideas have been studied and 
mastered so that they will see a sentence in one mental 
effort, just as in the beginning they learned to see a 
whole word in one mental effort. In these earlier steps 
of reading quality should be sought rather than quantity, 
and it should be ever borne in mind that correct expres- 
sion depends tipon correct interpretation. 

Third Step : Getting the sense from the printed page. 
— Pupils should understand the subject of the lesson 
before they attempt to read it aloud, but the only 
means by which the teacher may know that the pupils 



24 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

understand the subject is by having them state the con- 
tent of the lesson before reading it. Each lesson should 
be studied by the pupils and the teacher, and discussed 
by the pupils in class, so that it may be known that this 
step has been performed before reading aloud is under- 
taken. This step is one which in the main the pupils 
must make alone. The teacher should, however, give 
proper instruction for preparation, and then before 
allowing the pupils to recite, find out that the prepara- 
tion has been made. When pupils read without a good 
understanding of what they are saying, the recitation is 
valueless. 

Fourth Step: Interpreting, or oral expression. — In 
this step there are few important preliminaries that it is 
safe to omit. Pupils who are reading aloud should 
stand or sit in correct position in order that the respira- 
tory organs may have free, easy, and natural action. 
They should be taught to inhale and to exhale so as to 
economize breath in reading and convert it into sound. 
They should hold their books at a correct distance from 
the face and in such a position that both eyes may see 
the words at the same visual angle. 

The human voice is an instrument of wonderful power 
and is susceptible of great improvement; therefore it 
is necessary that in all these exercises the voice and 
all of the organs controlling the voice should be devel- 
oped in a rational manner. In order to teach reading 
properly the teacher must know what are pure tones of 



READING 25 

the voice and must understand and apply the most im- 
portant principles of voice culture to insure in the pupils 
proper cultivation of the voice. 

Since few pupils attend school more than a few years, 
it is very important to urge the necessity for correct 
instruction early in life, and especially so in teaching 
reading to primary classes. In all of this instruction 
the teacher should remember that the pupil in after life 
must help himself, and that reading is a foundation 
study and its importance not to be lost sight of for one 
moment. Upon correct reading — getting the sense 
from what is printed or written — depends every other 
scholastic acquisition. 

Since pupils cannot properly express what they do not 
thoroughly understand, the teacher should instruct them 
in the use of the dictionary and require them to refer to 
it day after day until finding the meaning of every 
word in the lesson before attempting to read becomes a 
fixed habit. By this means it is possible to get pupils to 
read with understanding and feeling. 

Fifth Step. — Creating and fostering a taste for good 
literature requires a knowledge of authors and of their 
works as well as exercise in interpreting thought. This 
training is usually deferred until pupils enter the high 
school, but since only about one tenth of our pupils ever 
enter high school, it is quite evident that this training 
should be begun in the grades. Reading, therefore, 
should include the imparting of a knowledge of good 



26 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

literature and the creating and fostering of a love 
for it. 

If, then, to accomplish our full purpose in teaching 
reading we must create and foster a love for good litera- 
ture, it is incumbent upon us to impart at least a cursory 
knowledge of the best authors and also to cultivate in 
each pupil some power to judge of literary values. The 
latter is most important, because no one can kndw what 
authors are to come prominently before the reading 
public, and it is ever necessary to select only the best 
from the great writers. Pupils do not select inferior 
literature for their home reading because of any inherent 
sin of humanity, but simply because they have not been 
taught to know the excellent and have, therefore, through 
ignorance, chosen the inferior. This is a reading age, 
and our pupils will always be influenced by thoughts 
from the printed page. We should be almost as anx- 
ious to have pupils read good books as to have them 
keep good company, for aside from the company they 
keep no factor will so much determine their character 
as the quality of books they read. A reader of good 
books is always in good company, and is thus fortified 
against the majority of temptations that beset him 
through life. 

Good books are such books as teach forcibly some 
principle or principles of right. Bad books are those 
the teachings of which are in conflict with morality. 
Books that simply entertain, but may not be classed as 
either positively good or positively bad, are not worth 



READING 27 

reading. Good books stimulate the mind and con- 
science, bad books poison them, and negative books 
only make the mind weary. 

The prevalent erroneous idea that only those having 
academic or higher educational training should be 
trained to judge of literary values, would lead to a con- 
dition wherein not more than one tenth of our people 
would know what to read or have the ability to appre- 
ciate good literature. If such results are to come from 
the work of the public schools, we should close the 
doors, drive out the teachers and put them to manual 
labor. 

A good way to accomplish this fifth step is by con- 
trolling as nearly as possible the general reading of all 
the pupils of the school. In order to do this the 
teacher should occasionally take a list of the various 
books recently read by the pupils, and speak at length 
on the good books which some have read ; but he 
should be careful not to mention any of those which 
have been read but are of little value. 

Teach pupils to swoop down, as it were, upon a mass 
of words and bear away the ideas expressed, for with 
the average modern writer the words are so many 
and the ideas so few and so well concealed that it re- 
quires the eye of a hawk and the power of a magnet 
to discover and drag out the little truths from the tan- 
gled pile of rubbish. By having the pupils give to the 
class the central thought in any good book recently 
read, you may teach them in a way to do this. 



28 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

After the pupils have read through their readers once 
it is a good plan to let them read again all the selections 
from some author agreed upon, to give quotations from 
that author, or to bring to class selections from his 
writings. Of course it would not be wise to treat every 
author whose name appears in the book in this way, but 
at least several authors may be studied in this manner. 

Poetry. — If literature is an expression of life, the 
study of literature should consist in the interpretation 
of life. Poetry portrays the moral side of life and 
expresses the joys, hopes, fears, strivings, and aspira- 
tions of humanity. The study of poetry teaches the 
pupils the love of the beautiful, brings them into the 
world of the imagination, and encourages them to do 
and to be. 

It will be well at times for the teacher to read to the 
pupils some poem so as to bring out the music. They 
will soon feel that music is varied, some flowing 
smoothly, some rough and broken, and again light 
and quick or heavy and slow of motion. If a number 
of poems by a single author are read, pupils will find 
that there is a sameness about his way of singing. For 
instance, they will discover that Tennyson's music is 
varied and polished ; that Bryant's music is deep, full, 
and resounding ; and that Riley's is dainty and light. 
If the teacher will have pupils look for the pictures 
in the poems they read, they will discover that Scott's 
pictures are highly colored ; that Tennyson gives us 



READING 29 

landscapes ; and that Byron paints the grandeur of 
nature ; that while some pictures are painted in detail, 
others are only suggestive. 

If pupils are asked to point out the passages which 
they like best, whether in prose or poetry, those express- 
ing patience, inspiration, truth, and faith will be selected. 
The boys of a school will select passages which treat 
of heroism and of military glory ; the girls, those that 
tell of sweet charity. Each can give reasons for the 
selections made, which is expressing judgment of lit- 
erary values. 

This fifth step in reading carries with it the whole 
culture value of the subject in the grades, and is most 
important whether denominated as literature or reading. 

In teaching pupils to judge of the literary values and 
to exercise their ethical judgment in the study of com- 
position great tact and care should be used. The steps 
in studying a selection in this way might be : first, to 
get the author's thought ; second, to get the pupil to 
think with the author by seeing relations ; and third, 
to knit the knowledge gained from the author to that 
which the pupil already has. The first step is getting 
the general idea of the composition ; then analyze the 
parts upon which the general idea is based, — that is, 
the things which go to make up the picture in a descrip- 
tion ; the events which form the narrative ; or the points 
in the author's argument. In this the student is seeing 
relations of these parts to each other and to the general 
idea — he is discriminating, comparing, judging. 



30 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

Of course the pupil has been using the knowledge he 
already had in order to interpret the knowledge offered 
by the writer, but he ought to bring up what he already 
knows on the subject or has gained through experience 
or previous reading and unite this with what he is read- 
ing. If he has been reading of the author's idea of 
good men, he should reproduce the opinions of other 
writers as to good men, supplement this with his own 
idea of what constitutes good men, and in this way 
produce a more nearly perfect concept of good men. 

Supplementary Reading. — There are two general 
classes of supplementary reading. The first is col- 
lateral reading, such as books intended to supplement 
the work in history, geography, science, etc., and to 
enlarge the pupil's view of the subject in hand or to 
help clear up doubtful points and strengthen impres- 
sions upon his mind. This reading undoubtedly adds 
to the pupil's interest in school studies, and no doubt 
unconsciously he is influenced by the author's style as 
well as by his thought. But in this reading the main 
purpose is the improvement of the pupil's thought and 
bringing him into relation with the best minds in the 
literary world upon the points under discussion. 

The second class of supplementary reading is that 
which is designed to train the pupil in reading good 
books or designed to create and foster a taste for good 
literature. This kind of reading meets the demand of 
those who claim that having taught the child to read, 



READING 31 

we should teach him what to read. It contributes to 
the aesthetic culture of the pupil ; broadens and deepens 
his daily living ; and makes his mind more keenly- 
alive to all that is beautiful in nature and in art. It 
enriches life by bringing into it the inheritance of the 
best thought of the present and past ages. This with 
the young is a potent factor in the building of charac- 
ter. If the psychology of character building is summed 
up in four sentences : " I see, I like, I wish I were, I 
will be," then the greatest possible amount of character 
building can be obtained by observing fully this fifth 
step in reading. 

General Suggestions. — Pupils learn to read by being 
drilled in reading. Drill, drill, drill, is a proper motto 
for the reading class. Every child should read at least 
two first readers and two second readers, or the equiv- 
c':nt. Drilling in what he can understand is his only 
hope of learning to read with expression. Drill, drill, 
drill the pupil until he can recognize and pronounce 
words without a conscious mental struggle. He should 
be drilled until he does not stop to think. Teacher, if 
the reading in your school is soulless, it is your fault. 
Take a spirited selection and drill upon it until the 
pupils catch its spirit. 

It is necessary to teach reading in all that pupils 
read. Why observe the punctuation marks in the 
reader and not in the history, geography, or arithme- 
tic ? Why teach a pupil to observe in one study a thing 



32 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

that he does not observe in another study or exercise ? 
Why permit a pupil to revive a bad habit by indiffer- 
ence on your part ? One virtue of teaching is persist- 
ency of purpose. Many teachers fail because they are 
spasmodic in their efforts. There is an infinity of dif- 
ference between a well-developed purpose and a spasm. 

The more uniform and exacting a teacher's methods, 
the less time and labor required to establish a habit. 
Habit is the result of methodical and persistent repeti- 
tion. Education ends in habit. An earnest and per- 
sistent purpose is back of every success. God gives 
nothing for the mere asking. Effort accompanies all 
successful prayers. " Faith without works is dead." 

If teachers would interest pupils in a reading lesson, 
they must be interested in the lesson themselves. In- 
terest begets interest. The sincere and purposeful 
teacher can become interested in the simplest stories. 
A teacher can no more interest a class in the first reader 
without preparation than he can interest a class in the 
" Binomial Theorem " without preparation. 



We teach him to read without implanting in his soul such love 
of the good in literature that he will choose the good and no other, 
and we have opened for him doors into evil paths as well as good, 
without power to withstand the temptations of the one and to 
steadily pursue the other. — Sarah L. Arnold. 

There are some people, old and young, who will never read ; 
there are many who can easily be made to read too much. It is 



READING 33 

possible to read too many books, even good books. The Sunday 
school library, and even the public library, sometimes bring to the 
young people too many books for their mental development. We 
need to emphasize the use of books rather than the reading of books. 

— A. E. Wins hip. 

It is apparent that familiarity with the English Bible, as a master- 
piece of literature, is rapidly decreasing among the pupils in our 
schools. This is the direct result of a conception which regards the 
Bible as a theological book merely, and thereby leads to its exclusion 
from the schools of some states as a subject of reading and study. 
We hope for such a change of public sentiment in this regard as 
will permit and encourage the reading and study of the English 
Bible as a literary work of the highest and purest type side by side 
with the poetry and prose which it has inspired and in large part 
formed. 

We do not urge this in the interest of sectarian instruction of 
any kind, but that this great book may ever be the teacher's aid 
in the interpretation of history and literature, law and life — an 
unrivaled agency in the development of true citizenship as well as 
in the formation of pure literary style. 

— Resolution of National Educational Association, 1902. 



CHAPTER IV 

ARITHMETIC 

To presume that the ability to "figure" is the whole 
aim in teaching arithmetic is to see only the smaller 
part of the purposes ; to suppose that a knowledge of 
how to solve the problems is the only aim is peda- 
gogical myopia. The latter fault is more frequently 
found, the former more loudly condemned ; either is 
inexcusable. 

If we consider arithmetic as an educational end, then 
what value is there in it if it be inaccurate ? Who 
would accept your business calculations if you were 
known to be inaccurate in arithmetic ? If we consider 
it as an educational agency, there is still more demand 
for exactness. 

The purposes in teaching arithmetic, aside from the 
necessary fund of useful information gained, are to culti- 
vate exact reasoning and accurate mechanical execution. 
Therefore any method found to be deficient in develop- 
ing these powers should be condemned. 

It is not necessary to argue that we teach arithmetic 
to cultivate exact reasoning, for that is generally under- 
stood and asserted. And it will also be readily admitted 
that the teaching of arithmetic should cultivate accuracy 

34 



ARITHMETIC 35 

in mechanical execution ; but we must own that much 
work accepted by many teachers in their daily teaching 
is not characterized by severe accuracy. 

Incorrect Methods. — To illustrate that the usual 
methods of teaching are not always conducive to the 
development of self-directed accuracy, we give the 
following : — 

Ten pupils are sent to the blackboard and given work. 
Presently the teacher says : " John, where did you get 
seven per cent? Don't you see that it says eight per 
cent ? " John erases the seven and begins to multiply 
by eight. Soon that delightful (?) sound (snapping fin- 
gers by non-reciting pupils) is heard, and John, heeding 
the warning, examines his work and finds that he has 
said (mentally or perhaps in audible whisper), " Six 
times seven are thirty-six." This he corrects and again 
begins operations. This time a hand that is waving 
frantically is recognized by the teacher, and Mary (at 
her seat) says, "John has divided by three instead of 
four; three months equal one fourth of one year." 
John promptly changes divisors and proceeds. And 
what is true of John is true of each reciting pupil. 
In fact, throughout this recitation the pupils at the board 
are deprived of the privilege of self -direction. They do 
nothing by themselves ; hence, they are not benefited or 
developed. 

Reader, will you argue that this is an extreme case ? 
Well, so it is ; but the tendencies here mentioned actually 



36 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

exist in many of our schools. If you require proof, 
you have only to go in your imagination to the schools 
you attended, the schools you have taught, and the 
schools you have visited ; then say for yourself whether 
these things exist. It is allowable to help pupils to 
understand problems, but it is wrong to solve their 
problems for them. The reasoning may be above their 
ability, but the mechanical operation should always be 
required of them. This does not mean that they should 
not be required to reason for themselves, but when they 
cannot understand, they may be helped. Neither does 
it mean that new mechanical processes should not be 
fully explained, but when a process is understood, the 
work should be accurately done without help. Remem- 
ber that the various problems are only applications of 
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Re- 
member also that these fundamentals are mastered, or 
should be mastered, during the first four years of school, 
and then all this helpful criticising will appear not only 
unnecessary, but clearly harmful. 

Too much attention cannot be given to the funda- 
mental processes of arithmetic in primary grades, for if 
pupils do not become accurate in these processes be- 
fore the end of the fourth school year, they seldom ever 
do so. 

Model Solutions. — Pupils should not learn to solve 
problems by patterns or recipes, for that destroys all 
opportunity to cultivate the power of reasoning, and 



ARITHMETIC 37 

reduces the work to mere mechanical imitation. They 
should be required to give logical analysis, but each pupil 
should give his ozvn analysis. The teacher should have 
a mind so alert and a nervous system so adjustable as 
to be able to follow each pupil in his individual analysis, 
and reject all illogical processes. If the pupil is re- 
quired to give the teacher's analysis, the principal's 
analysis, or the superintendent's analysis, wherein is he 
developed ? He is certainly not developed in power for 
self-directed thinking. To be sure, the "machine" is 
thereby completed, the work is beautifully (?) done, but 
at the child's expense. The following instance will 
illustrate the fallacy of such methods. 

A boy asked his mother to analyze a problem for 
him, but when she did so, he insisted that the analysis 
was wrong. The father was a graduate of one of the 
best universities, and taught mathematics in another, so 
the matter was referred to him. He sustained the 
mother by saying that the analysis was logical and the 
result correct. On the following day the boy gave this 
analysis in class and was mortified by a correction from 
the teacher. Upon his return home he met his parents 
with this remark : " I told you that you couldn't do that 
sum. You left out two ' hences ' and a 'therefore.'' 
His teacher should have been enlightened or dismissed, 
and yet there are others of her kind. 

Correct Methods. — Teachers should always have prob- 
lems solved from the individual view point of the pupil 



38 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

solving it, and should remember that model solutions are 
almost useless for educational purposes. 

When work is to be done at the board, the teacher 
should know (by previous discussion or otherwise) that 
the pupils understand the problems, and then see to it 
that the pupils at the board do the mechanical work and 
do it correctly. Each pupil should have a statement of 
what is required, should finish his solution without in- 
terruption, and then face the school ready to defend his 
work against all criticisms. He should stand alone and 
succeed, or standing alone, fail, and feel that he has 
failed. A pupil who cannot solve problems correctly 
without helpful criticisms from the teacher or pupils is 
either a dullard or has not been properly taught. 

Mental Arithmetic. — Mental arithmetic concerns 
itself with principles rather than processes, and empha- 
sizes meaning rather than mechanical observation. It 
lays stress upon the science of number rather than the 
art of computation. It is true that no good texts 
on this subject ignore the practical side of arithme- 
tic, but they present it as subordinate to the scientific 
side. 

Mental arithmetic is not a substitute for written arith- 
metic. They are both necessary ; in fact, they are com- 
plements of each other. No teacher who has had 
opportunity to observe the influence of mental arithmetic 
on the pupils' work in written arithmetic will doubt for 
a moment the great value of the former. 



ARITHMETIC 39 

Pupils gain from mental arithmetic ability to reason 
correctly in the use of numbers, and can be more confi- 
dently depended upon to apply proper principles to the 
processes of written arithmetic after having had thor- 
ough drill in mental arithmetic. For this reason, each 
topic or subject in arithmetic should be treated orally 
before the written processes are attempted. 

Fundamental Processes 

Addition. — Children should be taught to name the 
sum of any two numbers at sight. There is no more 
excuse for counting numbers together in adding than 
there is for spelling the letters of a syllable together 
in reading. To find the sum of two small numbers 
requires but one mental act. 

Only forty-five combinations of two figures each can 
be formed with the nine significant digits ; only seven- 
teen different words are required to name the results. 
Twenty-five of the forty-five combinations make sums 
of ten or less. When the combinations are learned, the 
mind recognizes them as different forms of numbers 
without regard to the figures themselves. Pupils should 
be so familiar with the forty-five combinations that the 
sum of two numbers is seen as quickly as the number 
itself. 

The forty-five primary problems in addition are as 
follows : — 



40 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

123243543654 
III2I2I23I23 



7 


6 


5 


4 


8 


7 


6 


5 


9 


8 


7 


6 


1 


2 


3 


4 


1 


2 


1 


4 


1 


2 


3_ 


4 


5 


9 


8 


7 


6 


3 


8 


7 


6 


9 


8 


7 


5 


2 


3 


4 


1 


9 


4 


S_ 


6 


4 


1 


6 



987979899 

5 6 7_ 6 8 7 8 _8 9 

Subtraction. — Subtraction is simple when addition is 
mastered. Subtraction finds what number added to the 
smaller of two numbers makes the larger. That is, find- 
ing the difference between two numbers is finding the 
wanting part of the sum of two numbers when one num- 
ber is given. The minuend is the sum of two numbers, 
the subtrahend is one of the numbers, and the wanting 
part is the difference. Subtraction is thinking to the 
smaller number a number which makes it equal to the 
larger number. 

When a pupil knows the forty-five combinations, he 
sees at a glance the number which, added to the smaller 
number, makes the larger one. The mind almost un- 
consciously calls up the wanting part of the combina- 
tion which makes the larger number. So strong is the 
law of association that to know addition thoroughly is 
to know subtraction also. 



ARITHMETIC 41 

Multiplication. — Children should be taught that mul- 
tiplication is a form of addition — that the multiplier 
shows how many times the multiplicand is to be taken 
or repeated ; that the multiplier is always an abstract 
number ; that we cannot repeat a number five cents 
times or five yards times, but five product is the same 
as the multiplicand because repeating a number or 
quantity does not change its nature or quality. Thus, 
five units taken five times are twenty-five units, five 
yards taken five times are twenty-five yards. 

There should be no hurry to solve problems. Pupils 
need understanding more than they need answers. 
The formal act of multiplying adds nothing of value 
after the mechanical part is learned. Pupils do not 
solve problems to learn to "cipher," but cipher when 
necessary to solve problems. A little thinking is better 
than much ciphering. 

Division. — One number is contained in another as 
many times as it can be taken from the other. Division 
is a sort of subtraction. One number cannot contain 
another dollars times, but merely times. The remainder 
is the undivided part of the dividend; hence, it is like it. 

Pupils should be made so familiar with the mechanical 
work of arithmetic that adding, subtracting, multiplying, 
and dividing will be automatic, i.e. done without much 
conscious mental effort. If pupils are permitted to pass 
over the ground rules in an indefinite, slipshod manner, 



42 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

the probability is that they will always blunder in the 
purely mechanical work of arithmetic. 

Pupils should be trained to solve arithmetical prob- 
lems by brief and intelligent methods and kept free 
from set rules and formulas. What a pupil does in 
arithmetic, he should do consciously, not mechanically. 
Memory, or rule arithmetic, always fails when most 
needed. Principles should be inductively developed in 
the class and then consciously applied by the pupils to 
the solution of text-book problems, and to problems 
prevalent in the everyday life and occupations of the 
community. 



: 



CHAPTER V 

SPELLING 

The spelling of a word involves the recall of certain 
memory images and concepts, such as the visual image 
of the written or printed word ; the memory images of 
the phonetic elements or the endings, prefixes, and suf- 
fixes of certain classes of words. 

In the spelling of English words silent letters and 
other etymological peculiarities impose a tremendous 
task upon the learner. 

In the primary grades, especially, the chief reliance 
is upon the sense of sight. Pupils must acquire correct 
mental images of words or they cannot recall their cor- 
rect spelling. They must be trained to see words ; to 
see the different syllables of a word ; to see the correct 
form of a word; to pronounce each syllable distinctly 
and correctly ; to commit to memory a few of the rules 
of spelling, and then drilled, drilled, drilled in the use 
of the rules. They should also be required to use every 
word in their formal spelling lessons in thoughtful sen- 
tences. The mere spelling of a list of words orally 
counts for little. 

Written Spelling. — As we spell only when we write, 
the eye should be trained from the start to recognize 

43 



44 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

the combinations of letters which represent the different 
phonetic elements. As soon as a pupil can write, he 
should be required to copy the spelling lessons in his 
reader. If he is required to copy his spelling lessons, 
he will give closer attention to the form of the word 
than when he merely studies the lesson and spells the 
word orally. Written spelling lessons are also exercises 
in penmanship, and they afford the teacher a rare op- 
portunity to train pupils in habits of order, neatness, 
and promptness. 

Pupils should spell and respell new words as they 
occur in each study. In this way spelling is taught 
with all the other branches. Pupils should spend no 
time in spelling words that they will seldom or never 
use, such as unimportant geographical and historical 
names. Jt is enough that a pupil recognizes these 
words readily in reading. 

In the first three grades, or during the first three 
years of a child's school life, the spelling lessons should 
consist largely in copying sentences and new words. 
In this way pupils in the lower grades acquire by imita- 
tion the correct spelling of simple words. 

The teacher should keep lists of words frequently 
misspelled and make special lessons of them. This will 
concentrate the attention of the class upon the mis- 
spelled words. The teacher should ascertain, if possible, 
why these words were misspelled ; should call attention 
to the very letters in these words which most probably 
caused the pupil to misspell them, and should bring 



^. 



SPELLING 45 

into clear consciousness the correct form of the mis- 
spelled words. 

Oral Spelling. — The direct usefulness of spelling is 
not limited entirely to what one writes. People in dif- 
ferent vocations will use different words. Nothing less 
than an unabridged dictionary would contain all of the 
words used in the English language, and few people 
live long enough to commit this formidable list to mem- 
ory. Good spelling is indispensable; still we do not 
believe that words are written simply to be spelled, and 
that men are born simply to spell words. Twenty-five 
hundred words are probably all that are in everyday 
use by the masses, and this is about the number that an 
average pupil in the grammar grades should be required 
to learn to spell. 

In the lower grades spelling is an invaluable aid to 
proper pronunciation. Especially is this true if the 
pupils are required to syllabify words; for in so doing 
they will get more distinct mental images of the form 
and sound of the separate syllables and hence retain 
a more definite concept of the word. 

It is a good plan to have the pupils in oral spelling 
first repeat the word so that the teacher may know that 
his own pronunciation has been understood, then each 
syllable pronounced as the word is spelled, and the word 
re-pronounced, defined, and used in a thoughtful sentence. 
When a pupil has recited his spelling in this way, he has 
deepened the mental image of the whole word form, and 



46 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

the form of each syllable, also the mental image of the 
word sound and its several phonetic elements. In addi- 
tion to this the form and sound of a word are more 
easily retained if the word has been mastered by learn- 
ing its meaning and use — if it has become a part of the 
pupil's vocabulary. The plan of spelling all the words 
in the book as rapidly as possible without giving any 
attention to rules or reason is a schoolroom farce that 
should have no place even in the poorest school. 

Simplified Spelling. — Frequently the movement for 
simplified spelling is thought to be simply a movement 
for phonetic spelling, but the two movements are not 
identical. In the matter of phonetic spelling or spelling 
by sound, the present alphabet will not serve perfectly 
and as yet no alphabet has been found that is complete. 
Until such an alphabet is invented phonetic spelling 
cannot be universally adopted. 

The present current spelling of our language is 
needlessly difficult. It is estimated that the letters in 
our written language are at least ten per cent more 
numerous than is necessary. The learning of spelling 
in English requires a great amount of extra time and 
retards the learner's progress in all subjects. At least 
one year's time in the grammar grades is consumed in 
learning the difficult spelling of our tongue. Simplified 
spelling would prevent this needless waste of time and 
effort in the schooling of the young. 

Spelling reform is accomplished by gradual change as 



SPELLING 47 

the language is simplified or as a close parallelism is 
established between the correct sound and the written 
or printed form of words. If one should write fysche 
for fish, sunne for sun, trewe for true, cuppe for cup, etc., 
as our ancestors did, he would realize how much needless 
effort they expended in recording word symbols and 
and would cease to cry, " Spare the spelling of our fath- 
ers." When we have written through for thru, prologue 
for prolog, programme for program, etc., we can begin 
to understand the necessity for eliminating superfluous 
letters in our language. When letters are in no sense 
helpful, leave them out, is a good rule for teachers to 
follow. A silent letter may be needed to indicate the 
sound of an adjacent letter, as a in the past tense of 
read, or it may be needed to indicate the sense of a word, 
as the u in Saviour. When there is use for a letter in 
a word, we must keep it, whether our spelling is ever 
reformed or not. 

Reform in spelling must be a growth — a gradual 
change. It cannot be brought about by decree any 
more than it can be stopped by ridicule. Teachers 
should take a sensible view of this subject and lend 
reasonable help to the simplification of spelling. 



CHAPTER VI 

GEOGRAPHY 

Geography may be defined as the science which de- 
scribes the earth in its relation to man. From this pro- 
visional definition we must conclude that geography is 
a science study — that a knowledge of it must be based 
upon sense perception. To illustrate that our knowledge 
of geography is based upon sense perception we have 
only to think of trying to form the concept " mountains " 
without seeing a mountain and without the use of the 
concept " hill." In the extension of our knowledge of 
this subject we rely upon the imagination and the re- 
corded knowledge gained by others through sense per- 
ception, but in adopting or rejecting methods of teaching 
geography we must remember the scope and nature of 
our subject. 

In teaching geography we should emphasize those 
features which influence human life and action. When 
geography is made a technical study of names, bounda- 
ries, and locations, it loses its usefulness and the pupils 
lose their interest. In fact, these things are not usually 
important, and however faithfully a teacher may work 
in attempting to fill the minds of his pupils with these 
dry, statistical facts, he cannot arouse interest in the 
subject or secure any valuable results. 

4 8 



GEOGRAPHY 49 

Geography properly taught gives pupils a knowledge 
of the life (plant and animal) of a country as well as of 
its climate and the environment of its people ; it becomes 
an inspiring and extremely profitable study; it trains the 
pupils to create mental pictures of the surface of the 
earth ; to see lakes, oceans, rivers, hills, mountains, vil- 
lages, and cities ; to note the positions upon the earth 
where environment favors man, or to discover how man 
may profit by his environment. To a pupil properly 
taught, the marks and dots on the map suggest real 
representations. 

Primary Geography. — Before a child enters school 
he has acquired a considerable geographical knowledge, 
and the tactful teacher begins his task by finding out 
how much the pupils know. Should he desire to teach 
the shape of the earth, he would introduce the study 
by a simple inductive exercise which will develop a 
clear concept of the sphere from the pupils' knowledge 
of familiar objects (ball, orange, marble, etc.) that are 
round. Next in order, perhaps, would be the surface 
of various familiar objects, including the earth's surface 
as the pupils have seen it. By inquiry the teacher can 
lead the class to discover that they have not seen all of 
the surface of the earth, but in so far as they have ob- 
served the surface of the earth is composed of land and 
water. But is it nearly all land ? Is there more land 
than water ? At this point the teacher may introduce 
the globe and let the pupils help to find out that there 



50 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

is more water than land and then teach them the exact 
proportions. 

We should teach distances, — foot, yard, mile, etc., — 
and have the pupils think these distances ; then try to 
think how many miles around the earth. One pupil has 
been to a distant point. How far ? Can he think ? Let 
him bring the globe and show to the class the points from 
and to which he traveled. After this exercise the teacher 
should give the circumference of the earth ; — he should 
first get the concept formed and then place the figures 
before the pupils. 

To teach the motions of the earth and other planets, 
the pupils should be led to form mental images of the 
spherical bodies revolving in space : to see the earth, 
mentally, swinging in space ; to see the sun, moon, and 
stars floating in space. If they can form these mental 
images, they can begin to understand the courses of the 
seasons and of day and night. With proper instruction 
they can do this. 

If pupils do not know the cardinal points of the com- 
pass, these should be definitely fixed in their minds by 
calling attention to the position of the sun and by re- 
peatedly requiring the pupils to recognize and give these 
directions. 

Before a pupil can understand the maps in his geog- 
raphy he needs to be given some instruction and practice 
in making maps. It is well to begin this by having him 
make on his tablet a map (representation) of the bot- 
tom of his ink-well, the map being the same size as the 



GEOGRAPHY 5 I 

object; next requiring him to make a map of his book, 
the map being the same size as the object. Next he 
should try to make a map of the top of his desk ; but as 
it is too large to be drawn on his tablet, let him make 
it only one tenth as large — necessity for scale devel- 
oped. Next let him make a map of the schoolroom, 
placing the north part of the room at the top of his 
paper. Require him to locate on his map certain objects 
in the room, and he will thus discover the manner and 
need of indicating latitude and longitude. If the teacher 
will extend this exercise until the school district, the 
county, the state, the United States, North America, and 
the world have been mapped, the pupils may be able, by 
the use of a map and the accompanying description, to 
form a somewhat reliable and accurate concept of the 
location of places they have never visited. 

When these introductory and fundamental facts are 
clearly understood by the pupils, the teacher should give 
them text-books. This can usually be accomplished by 
the end of the third year. Teachers should give the 
pupils these exercises and see that they are understood 
before introducing a text-book in geography. 

Pupils should devote much time to the geography of 
our own country and little to that of foreign countries. 
The geography of Africa and Australia should be studied 
only in a general way; — only as wholes. The small 
political divisions of Europe, South America, and Asia 
might be entirely omitted. 

Descriptive geography furnishes ample opportunity 



52 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

for the teacher to train his pupils in the use of lan- 
guage, oral and written. Every important geographical 
fact should be described orally in the class recitation, 
and afterward reproduced in the form of composition. 
Written descriptions deepen the images and give them 
greater symmetry of form than oral description. 

In primary geography the book should be used chiefly 
as a reader, not as a work to be committed to memory. 

Advanced Geography. — One of the most interesting 
fields of study and thought is here opened to the stu- 
dent. Here he is to learn how the three great king- 
doms, mineral, vegetable, and animal, each having an 
independent form, are related to the earth's surface and 
to human history. Geography opens the gateway to 
organic and inorganic nature and reveals the manner in 
which the earth was prepared for the habitation of man. 
It also teaches how certain races or nations have made 
advancement in civilization while others have made no 
appreciable progress. Thus we see that geography 
lays the foundation for natural science and also for 
social and political economy. 

Geography should enable the pupil to know some- 
thing of his social and political rights and duties and to 
understand something of the complex relations between 
various industries and occupations. 

But if geography is treated as a mass of discon- 
nected, unrelated, dry facts, the student will not be 
developed in the least. Helen Keller once remarked 



GEOGRAPHY 53 

that her main objection to college was that she had to 
study so much of the time that she had no time to 
think. Too often the pupils in geography have a simi- 
lar experience. 

Field Exercises. — The out-of-door study of geography 
is a good means by which to develop thought. Field 
excursions and field exercises are included in all inter- 
mediate plans of study in this work. Field exercises 
are more useful with small classes and field excursions 
with large ones. In field exercises each pupil is re- 
quired to do the work, but in field excursions the pupils 
are to make observations for themselves and the teacher 
is to lead in class work. 

To illustrate this work in a field excursion we will 
suppose a class of twenty pupils to be standing upon a 
hill somewhere in the great valley of the Mississippi 
River, and the teacher to be endeavoring to impress 
them with the magnitude of the work of erosion. 

The teacher says, "Now, pupils, face the south and 
look across the little stream below us to the top of 
the hill on the other side. Now close your eyes and 
imagine that it is level from the top of this hill to the 
top of the one you are facing. Imagine also that it is 
level with this point far across the river into which the 
stream below us flows, and still level across the wide 
Mississippi River to the hills beyond it. Now imagine 
that there are none of these streams in existence, but 
that it is level prairie from here to the Gulf of Mexico. 



54 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

Imagine that a rain falls on the northern shore of the 
Gulf; clods of moist earth fall into the Gulf, leaving an 
opening down which runs the water from the level; 
other rains fall and other earth when moistened crum- 
bles and falls into the same channel, which deepens, 
widens, and reaches farther inland ; ages of rain storms 
are poured upon the land and this channel becomes a 
creek, then a mighty river, its source receding north- 
ward until it is far north of where you now stand. 
Then some earth falls into the river from the bank on 
this side, and a channel is gradually worn and a stream 
formed flowing from near here ; it is the river just 
below us into which the stream just at your feet is now 
flowing, and this stream was formed in like manner by 
clods falling into the river and continued crumbling 
and washing away of earth until all that is left on the 
former great level plain is the tops of these hills on one 
of which we are now standing. Open your eyes and 
tell me how much earth the water has swept down 
toward the Gulf, and how long it took to form these 
hills." 

It would be impossible for those pupils ever to forget 
such a lesson, and it would be impossible for them to 
fail to think. But this is only one of many out-of-door 
lessons a tactful teacher can give. 

Industries. — Our text-books on geography are too 
incomplete and fragmentary. This defect is probably 
due to the plan of treating all or a large part of the 



GEOGRAPHY 55 

world in one book ; but a tactful teacher can supple- 
ment this in the industries by collecting specimens of 
farm products or of manufactured articles in process of 
production. Samples of crude oils and of the same 
when refined, together with the samples of the by-prod- 
ucts obtained, afford material for valuable exercises in 
the geography class. Another illustration would be in 
silk manufacture. In studying this have a cocoon, the 
silk unwound, and dyed, and certain finer fabrics of silk 
after manufacture. Such articles as these mentioned 
can be easily obtained from the factories, and the teach- 
ing of the industrial part of geography in this manner 
will undoubtedly be more beneficial than committing to 
memory condensed statistical statements contained in 
the average descriptive geography. 

Map Questions. — In studying location of places it is 
well occasionally to put the class at the board and ask 
them, for illustration, to draw a rough outline map of 
the United States, indicating the chief rivers, lakes, and 
mountains ; then, as the teacher calls number one, New 
York, let the pupils place the figure one on the map 
where the City of New York should be located; number 
two, San Francisco, etc., until the principal cities are 
located: Again, let the teacher call the word wheat, 
the word corn, the word cotton, etc., and let the pupils 
write the word on that part of the map where the 
article is produced. The same should be done with 
the products of the mines. At the words coal, iro?i, 



56 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

gold, or silver, the pupil should write these words ap- 
proximately in the places where the products form an 
industry. 

Map questions in the geography may be made in- 
teresting if they are extended. As an illustration, let 
us suppose that we are studying France. Let the pupils 
use their maps and find the latitude of France. Let 
them compare it with the latitude of the state in which 
they reside. Using the scale let them find the length 
and average width of France and compare this with the 
dimensions of their own country and state. Then have 
them make a list of the seaports of France and for 
comparison another list of the seaports of the Atlantic 
coast of the United States. Have them examine an 
isothermal chart and state how France compares with 
their own state in temperature. Ask them if it snows 
in Paris during the winter and if the people sleigh- 
ride and skate. Have the pupils determine what part 
of France is best adapted to agriculture. After a 
comparison of the population and area, the teacher 
should see if the pupils think France's agricultural 
products will supply her demands. This line of ques- 
tions may be continued indefinitely and supplemented 
by printed lists, while also awakening some real interest 
in the study of the country of France. 

In studying any foreign country the pupils should 
bring to the class such articles as they have which are 
imported from that country, and discuss the production 
of these articles. It is also a most excellent plan to 



GEOGRAPHY 57 

introduce the study of a foreign country by associating 
historic events with certain localities. 

Inasmuch as geography is a science study, any reci- 
tation in which the laboratory method is approached, 
i.e. out-of-door geography, illustrated subjects — as of 
commercial commodities, and comparative studies of 
different countries, should be made study recitations. 
That is, the teacher and pupils should investigate and 
recite what they find out as it is learned. 

In this, as in all other subjects, no one method is 
best; but there are fundamentals which determine 
whether methods are proper or improper, and the suc- 
cess of these methods when employed must, of course, 
depend somewhat upon the tact and energy of the 
teacher. The teaching of geography has received much 
attention in recent years because of the change from 
the old method of catechism teaching of questions and 
answers. 

It is to be hoped, at least, that the painful sight of 
the teacher reading the question from the geography 
and then sending his finger in a rapid search for the 
location, receiving the answer from the class, and hur- 
rying through the next question in the same manner, 
will not be witnessed longer in American schools, but 
that geography will be taught by methods which are in 
accordance with the needs of the pupils in making 
geography a natural science study, a useful study, a 
bright and interesting topic in the schoolroom. 



CHAPTER VII 

ENGLISH: LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR 

When the principal characteristic of a teacher is 
purpose, he is greater than any method ; and he seeks 
not to make pupils recite, but to make them think. To 
the teacher, the best evidence of clear thinking is clear 
expression. The value of any lesson may be determined 
by the amount of clear expression called forth, but this 
is especially true of lessons in English. 

Language. — In teaching elementary English the end 
sought is expression — clear, pure, simple. The teacher 
must know methods of teaching. He must also know- 
both the art and the science of expression. The former 
is language work — the art of expression ; the latter is 
technical grammar — or the science of language. 

In expression, as in all else, pupils readily learn from 
example. The language of the teacher, therefore, may 
be a very potent factor in aiding pupils to acquire the 
power of correct expression. If the teacher is accurate 
in the selection of words and careful in the construction 
of sentences, the pupils will desire to use good language, 
and by imitation, gradually learn to do so. A teacher 
who habitually uses incorrect language — who is care- 
less in expression — cannot teach English successfully. 

58 



ENGLISH: LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR 59 

As accuracy of expression depends upon clearness of 
thought, a pupil should never be asked to express him- 
self until he knows clearly what he is to say. The 
reflective use of words in the expression of original 
thought is a most valuable exercise in the cultivation 
of the power of expression. 

In the primary grades, sense perception should be the 
basis, and descriptive composition the finished product. 
Little children may be able to describe what they have 
seen, but they should not be expected to discuss abstract 
subjects or produce argumentative compositions. The 
order should be oral exercises first, written last; the 
former more abundant. The subjects assigned should 
be such as are familiar to the children, objects of which 
each child has frequently had and still retains clear 
visual images. 

Every incorrect expression should be questioned by 
the teacher and corrected by the pupil; every wordy 
statement should be revised by the pupil until it is clear 
and concise. The use of language, good or bad, is a 
habit — a growth. Habit results from repetition. A 
tactful teacher will ever be on the alert in regard to the 
language used by his pupils and keep them on their 
guard as to what they say. He will watch them until 
thoughtful expression becomes a fixed habit with them. 
When a pupil makes use of an incorrect expression or 
when his statements are not made in clear, smooth Eng- 
lish, the teacher should question him until by his own re- 
vision the pupil is able properly to express his thoughts. 



6o PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

Letter Writing. — Few pupils know how to write let- 
ters in credible style. This fault is due to a lack of 
proper instruction in school. Instruction in letter writ- 
ing is not complete until by application, in writing 
letters, the pupil is able to demonstrate that he can 
apply the principles of written expression in business 
and social correspondence. 

Teachers of different schools could be mutually help- 
ful if they would have their pupils correspond. Pupils 
from our city or state should write letters discussing 
familiar subjects to pupils of corresponding grades in 
other cities or states. By this means much interest 
may be created in the manners, customs, and occupa- 
tions of people in various localities. Besides this, real 
practice in letter writing is always a valuable drill in 
written expression. These letters should, of course, be 
criticised by the teacher before they are sent through 
the mail, but the superior wisdom of the teacher should 
not be allowed to discourage the pupil. 

Reproduction. — As soon as pupils can write fairly 
well they should be required to reproduce from memory 
the best selections from their readers. It is all the 
better if they have committed to memory selections 
which they are asked to reproduce. " Friday after- 
noon speeches" are valuable in fixing correct words, 
phrases, clauses, and sentences in the minds of the 
pupils. Exercises of this character should form part of 
every course of study. 



ENGLISH: LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR 6 1 

Selections memorized by the pupil or dictated by the 
teacher, when written by the pupils, aid materially in 
giving the idea of the sentence and paragraph. This 
exercise will also aid in teaching the correct use of 
capital letters and marks of punctuation. In written, 
as in oral, expression pupils should be made to see 
their own mistakes, and to correct them as part of the 
recitation. 

Grammar. — If most of the time now spent in teach- 
ing the facts of grammar were spent in expressing 
thought, it would not be long before the average high 
school graduate could use good English. A pupil can- 
not learn to use good language by reciting the rules 
that govern forms of speech. Many pupils can recite 
readily the rules of syntax and rapidly imprison sen- 
tences in diagrams, but cannot express the most com- 
monplace event in clear, smooth English. Yet, of 
course, we must know the science of language before 
we can become perfect in expression. We must know 
the science as well as the art, for the application of the 
science of expression constitutes the art of expression. 

What we should do is to require the pupils to use 
grammatical facts as soon as they have learned them. 
Use fixes knowledge. Pupils are not properly interested 
in grammar unless they are using their acquired knowl- 
edge in the construction of thoughtful sentences. They 
should recite, but they should also create. Part of 
every day should be spent in sentence building or in 



62 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

some other form of composition work. Pupils should 
be required to write business letters, biographies, de- 
scriptions of journeys, narrations of events, as part of 
their work in grammar ; in short, they should use their 
knowledge. 

There is really very little to commit to memory in 
English grammar, and therefore undue time should not 
be given to unimportant topics. 

Pronouns. — Pupils should be thoroughly drilled in 
the use of pronouns. Many of the mistakes in writing 
and in speaking arise from ignorance of their correct 
use. But the mere recitation of grammatical rules that 
govern their use will not fix the correct forms of pronouns 
in the minds of the pupils. Students of grammar should 
be required to use all the forms of pronouns in sentences 
and tell why a certain form should be used in preference 
to another form. They should define, of course, but they 
should surely be required to illustrate. 

Personal pronouns have fixed forms for different uses: 
number forms, person forms, gender forms, and case 
forms. These forms should be mastered and their uses 
exhibited in thoughtful original sentences. 

Verbs. — Irregular and auxiliary verbs should be 
treated in a similar manner. The mere conjugation of 
irregular verbs will not fix their correct forms in the 
minds of the pupils. Pupils must be led to see the 
correct use of irregular verbs through their meaning. 



ENGLISH: LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR 63 

They must think the correct forms of pronouns and 
auxiliary verbs into habitual use or they cannot be relied 
upon at all times to use them correctly. 

The changes in the form of the verb to correspond 
to changes in its subject are very limited. With the ex- 
ception of the verb be, in the indicative mode, present 
and past tenses, singular number, there are but few 
changes in the form of the English verb to denote per- 
son, tense, mode, or voice. These changes should be 
learned and thought into use by repeated drills in the 
construction of sentences. 

Adjectives. — The adjective keeps the same form 
whether joined to a singular or to a plural noun. It is 
inflected to show degree only. Most adverbs are derived 
from adjectives and take the same inflection. Thus we 
see that the English language is, comparatively, an unin- 
flected language. In the study of adjectives, as in the 
study of other parts of speech, the teacher should re- 
member that use fixes knowledge, and that thoughtful 
practice in the application of grammatical facts and 
principles will result in habitual use of correctly gram- 
matical language. 

We should teach the essential facts of English gram- 
mar, but we should also let our major effort be the con- 
struction of English, i.e. the power to use good language 
— correct expression. 



CHAPTER VIII 

UNITED STATES HISTORY 

In teaching history the objects sought are to cultivate 
the memory, impart useful information, stimulate ethical 
judgment, and develop the power of probable reasoning ; 
and these objects taken collectively produce what we 
commonly call good citizenship. This good citizenship 
is, therefore, the paramount object in offering courses 
in United States history in elementary schools. 

Methods of teaching history seem to vary more widely 
than those of teaching any other given subject, and yet 
there seems to be less excuse for such variations than 
for variations in teaching other subjects. If we con- 
sider history a culture study, we can say briefly that we 
teach history to build good character. Now the applied 
psychology of character building may be briefly summed 
up in these words : " I see, I like, I wish I were, I will 
be." 

The first teaching of history should be largely bio- 
graphical, for in the life of an individual the young 
student can follow readily the right and wrong of con- 
duct, and exercise freely his ethical judgment. Teachers 
should not stop to say, " You should not like this," or 
" You should not like that," or dwell on a religious cate- 
chism of rights and wrongs, but present facts of history 

6 4 



UNITED STATES HISTORY 65 

in such a way that the child will see instantly that this 
conduct is right or that conduct is wrong, and then he 
will "see," will "like," will "wish he were," and will 
"be" a part of the good in the lives studied. Later the 
teaching should lead to a knowledge of institutional 
history. 

Topical Method. — We must at this point apparently 
digress from method to curriculum, and state that it is 
advisable to have an elementary course somewhere in 
the lower grades, and this work is that which should be 
" largely biographical." In the eighth, or last year of 
the grades, history should be taken up systematically 
by topics. For instance, in the study of the early ex- 
plorations and settlements, assign to the class such 
topics as the Discoveries, Explorations, and Settlements 
made in North America by the Spanish, the English, 
the French, and the Dutch. In the recitations develop 
an outline, or have the children develop it, and you will 
find that it will appear about as follows : — 

Spanish 

1. Columbus, 1492. 

2. Ponce de Leon. 

3. Balboa. 

4. De Soto, 1 541-1542. 

5. Cabrillo. 

6. Espejo. 

7. Menendez, 1565. 



66 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

English 

i. Cabots, 1 497- 1 498. 

2. Frobisher. 

3. Drake. 

4. Raleigh. 

5. London Company, 1607. 

6. Plymouth Company, 1620. 

French 

1. Verrazanni, 1524. 

2. Cartier. 

3. Ribault. 

4. Laudanier. 

5. Champlain. 

6. Marquette. 

7. La Salle. 

Dutch 

1. Henry Hudson, 1690. 

2. Adrian Block. 

The mastery of this outline will require three or four 
weeks' study. In this assignment are found several 
important dates upon which rest the claims to territory 
by discovery, by exploration, and by occupation, of 
these nations within the boundaries of what is now the 
United States. Do not require pupils to memorize 
unimportant dates or else they will remember no dates. 



UNITED STATES HISTORY 67 

This outline need not be exactly as above given, but 
approximately so. After this comes the study of the 
intercolonial wars, and the pupils, if taught as above 
suggested, will more readily understand the claims and 
conditions of the various nations involved in these inter- 
colonial difficulties. They will readily develop an out- 
line of this and succeeding periods. History should 
be outlined in the class, by the class, and for the class. 
History lessons should be assigned by topics, never by 
pages. 

Study of Wars. — The causes, the general plans of 
campaign, perhaps, and certainly the results of wars, 
should be known ; but wars should not be the most im- 
portant topics in history, for if Macaulay is right in 
saying that "the changes, the movements, and the de- 
velopments in the life of a people is that people's his- 
tory," then many other things should be studied as well 
as wars. However, every pupil should study fully, and 
in detail, some few important battles, that he may know 
something of what actual war means. 

Reviews. — After the historic events, somewhat in the 
order of occurrence, have been covered in this way, 
reviews should be given in parallels. As an illustration 
of that method we would suggest that the teacher assign 
for one parallel Financial Panics ; for another, Slavery ; 
for another, Treaties with' Foreign Powers ; for another, 
Acquisitions of Territory, etc. 



68 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

When the pupils of the eighth grade have finished 
the study of history, they have received some practical 
benefit as well as the intended culture ; they should 
know something of the institutional history of our own 
country. 

Culture Value. — History, if properly taught, is an 
excellent culture study, and one of its most fruitful les- 
sons is patriotism. In the study of United States his- 
tory we learn that five hundred years of history have 
become crystallized in our American notion of patriot- 
ism — five hundred years of passionate struggle for 
liberty. Oppressive forces, organized into institutions, 
have been resisted and overcome. Feudalism, villenage, 
serfdom, chattel slavery, and constitutional absolutism 
have, one after another, gone down in battle. Free 
towns, free men, and free states have come successively 
into being. During this entire time the whole western 
world has been a militant host. To secure and main- 
tain the rights of man thousands have died in battle, in 
prison, and at the stake. 

Speak of patriots and we think of William Tell, 
William the Silent, Cromwell, Mirabeau, Bolivar, La- 
fayette, Washington — all men with the sword in hand. 
In the opening chapter of his " French Revolution," 
Carlyle wrote : — 

" Borne over the Atlantic to the closing ear of 
of Louis, king by the grace of God, what sounds 
are these — muffled, ominous, new in our cen- 



UNITED STATES HISTORY 69 

turies? Boston harbor is black with unexpected 
tea; behold a Pennsylvanian congress gather; 
and, ere long, on Bunker Hill, Democracy an- 
nouncing in rifle volleys, death-winged, under her 
starry banner, to the tune of ' Yankee-doodle- 
doo,' that she is born, and, whirlwind-like will 
envelop the whole world." 

For a hundred years, to American children, Bunker 
Hill has been presented as a type of patriotism in the 
concrete. After the Civil War, new names were added 
to the list. Lincoln and Grant in the North, and with 
precisely the same sentiment, Lee and Jackson in the 
South. Our late war with Spain has increased this list 
still further. 

As a perpetual stimulus to this emotion we have put 
the flag over our schoolhouses and have taught our 
children to salute it, and this is right, but it is not our 
whole duty in the teaching of patriotism. 

The practical question for us to consider is, What 
does it all mean, and what is to be the outcome of it all ? 
Here is a sentiment of tremendous power, widespread 
and deeply felt. Hitherto, this sentiment has had the 
weakness of the old theology which aimed to teach men 
how to die. Shall this sentiment of patriotism be al- 
lowed to expend itself in mere effervescence — in Fourth 
of July orations, and after-dinner speeches on battle 
anniversaries ? Shall it pride itself chiefly in patriotic 
ancestry, or shall its energy be transmuted into useful 



70 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

work ? Shall not our people be willing to live for their 
country while waiting to die for it ? 

This great, independent nation composed of free and 
equal people will not have to fight over the old battles, 
or to meet again the old foes. The demands now to be 
made upon the love and devotion of our citizens will 
be to meet new enemies, and will call for new weapons. 

When we have come to know what these new ene- 
mies are, we shall realize that the work of patriots is no 
longer to be done under the glamour of military glory ; 
that the humblest citizen in the most commonplace 
things may show himself to be a glorious patriot ; that 
no grander character ever wrote a mighty name across 
the pages of history than has sacrificed its desires in 
humble but heroic services, perhaps never to be known. 
The potentially great, whom circumstances have buried 
in obscurity instead of lifting into prominence, have been 
legion. 

In teaching history teach the problems of human life 
— that the human race has been gradually growing 
stronger, better, and wiser. Train the children in jus- 
tice, mercy, purity, goodness, faith, hope, and love. 
Teach them to live for their country, and sacrifice for 
the common good. Make them see the beauty and 
the necessity of altruism. In teaching history, build 

CHARACTER. 

" The lovely things men build in the days of strength are but the 
reproduction of the lovely thoughts that were whispered in their 
hearts in the days of tender youth." 






PART TWO 

MANAGEMENT 



CHAPTER IX 

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 

The School an Organism. — The school includes the 
pupils, the teacher, the parents, the trustees, the com- 
munity, the taxpayers, the funds, the house, the appa- 
ratus, and the state. The purpose of these several 
factors is primarily to bring the pupils and the teacher 
into cooperation, and the work of this organization is 
the school process. The pupils and teacher are the 
center of all these diverse parts. All of these factors 
should cooperate to one end : bringing the pupil from 
the imperfect to the ideal state of development. Since 
the diverse acts of these several factors focus them- 
selves in the one single act for which all acts are per- 
formed, namely, improving the child, the work of the 
school is an organic process, the purpose of which is 
to serve the child's needs. This process is the thing 
to be controlled and directed. 

School Management. — School management is the 
control and direction of the school process, and since 
the laws for this management are based upon a work- 
ing, moving process rather than a fixed or stationary 
object, it is evident that it cannot be externally imposed 

73 



74 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

but is inherent in the school process itself. Actual 
school methods follow man's advancement in civilization 
and indeed are the result of his advancement. Ideal 
school methods are far in advance of real school methods, 
and the strain between these two — the real and the 
ideal — is continuous but perhaps varying in tension. 
This tension and the forces producing it are governed 
by inherent laws. 

Laws for the government of schools, like other laws, 
should be based on the consent or on the approval of 
the governed ; that is, laws of government should be 
inherent laws. The state itself proclaims laws for its 
own governing and obeys these laws because they are 
inherent laws. 

Just rules are indorsed even by the offender, because 
they embody the requirements of his own nature. The 
laws of a school, therefore, should express the require- 
ments of the pupil's nature, and if they are in accord- 
ance with this, they will not only be just, but pupils will 
be constrained to obey them. Since school laws are for 
the government of all school factors, the pupils alone 
cannot prescribe laws, but their judgment should 
approve them. 

Cooperation. — All of the complex factors of the 
school process should work harmoniously. If the 
teacher, who is one of the important factors, should neg- 
lect or antagonize any of these diverse forces, the school 
would suffer. If the directors should antagonize or 



FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 75 

counteract the teacher or any other factor of the school, 
evil results would follow. The same is true of any 
other of these various factors. 

Primarily the school exists for the pupil. Sometimes 
directors lose sight of this fact and use the school for 
other ends, and always in such cases evil results are 
sure to follow. The self-interest of those in authority 
is the most formidable obstacle to the just laws of a 
school. When some school trustee uses the money of 
the district for his own private ends, he is properly 
branded a criminal; but when he uses the school or 
the influence of the school to further his own interest, 
he is not generally so designated. If the trustee, in 
order to use the influence of the school in his own be- 
half, will drop a true and tried teacher of valuable 
experience for one that is doubtful and untried, he is 
jeopardizing the interests of the pupils, and he may do 
more harm than the man who appropriates the school 
funds to his own use. Again, when a school trustee 
yields to local pressure and retains an incompetent 
teacher, he is sinning against the children by reducing 
the efficiency of their training. Yet the common opinion 
of these acts is so different that he who takes the money 
from the child's fund is called criminal, and he who 
robs the child of his opportunity may remain an honored 
citizen. 

When any factor of the school process fails to act in 
accordance with the interests of the school organism, 
the action is not in accordance with the law of the 



J6 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

school, however strictly it may be in literal accord with 
the school law of the state. The law of the school — 
the really potent governing force — is inherent in the 
school process itself. One of the best means of secur- 
ing obedience is by consulting with pupils whose actions 
indicate that they are inclined to be disobedient. The 
mere fact of a teacher's considering a pupil and consult- 
ing with him will forestall any opposition and at the 
same time will tend to make the pupil a student of 
school conduct. 

Importing and Source of Law. — Rational school 
management — management that recognizes these funda- 
mental principles, is better than any direct moral in- 
struction, and as good moral character is the greatest 
purpose of the school, it is quite evident that proper 
management is more important, even, than proper in- 
struction. These fundamentals in school management 
are fundamentals in all management. These laws in 
school government are universal laws. The source of 
the origin of all social and political institutions is the 
fact that the real man seeks to become the ideal man, 
and that the institutions which he composes naturally 
formulate such laws as express his nature. The organi- 
zation compels its individual members to conform to 
the general rule of action, and therefore, at base, all 
government is democratic. 

A school may be crushed into obedience by the power 
of the teacher, but such obedience is really disorder. 



FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES JJ 

A teacher who so governs must have the erroneous 
idea that the school is his private enterprise ; that he 
must be obeyed and his pleasure and convenience con- 
sulted ; that the school exists for his benefit. The 
fact is, that the pupils originally organized the school 
and that to-day the school is organized in sympathy 
for pupils who are not able to organize and maintain 
their own schools; that while the teacher is an impor- 
tant factor, the pupils compose an indispensable factor. 
It is not intended to argue that school management 
should be turned over to the whims of pupils, but it 
is asserted that school rules of management should be 
in accord with the judgment of pupils as well as with 
the judgment of parents and teacher, and should express 
their nature. The pupil government established in 
many cities is of value because it secures the students' 
approval of all law, and is thus far founded on cor- 
rect principles. Whether this method of managing 
schools can be properly employed depends on whether 
the rights of all are considered, i.e. whether the rights 
of the pupils and the teacher, as well as the rights of 
all other factors of the school in question, receive due 
consideration. As the value of an institution depends 
upon the character of the individuals composing it, 
the value of a school depends on the character of the 
teacher and pupils, on the parents and trustees, and 
the community and state in general. 

Our whole social fabric is an organization to promote 
man's purpose to realize another self and may, therefore, 



y8 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

be termed a complex school to elevate man from the 
real to the ideal conditions of life. All rules or laws of 
management in the social fabric that are just are in- 
herent in the body politic, and the school itself is the 
more or less complex organization to assist the pupil to 
realize his other self; to develop from the real to the 
ideal and just. Just school rules and laws of govern- 
ment are inherent in the school organization. 

School laws that are based upon these fundamental 
principles are just and equitable. School management 
governed by these principles will be successful, for each 
of the several factors will be given due consideration, 
but impelled by the whole organization to cooperate in 
the school process. 



" Order is heaven's first law," and it is scarcely more essential to 
the harmony of heaven than it is to the happiness and success of 
the school. — David Page. 

" Discipline is the result of training and study. In physical cul- 
ture it gives a man control of his muscles, so that they are obedient 
to his will. In mental culture it gives him control of his intellectual 
powers, so that he is able under all circumstances to do the best 
work possible. In moral training discipline gives a man such con- 
trol of himself bodily and mentally that he can resist temptation, 
discern good from evil, and make the best choice." 



CHAPTER X 

CLASS MANAGEMENT 

The personality of the teacher, — his presence, — the 
impression which the teacher makes upon those with 
whom he comes in contact, is undoubtedly the greatest 
force in class management. There are, however, many 
duties in the management of classes which are common 
to every schoolroom, and a knowledge of the best 
methods employed by successful teachers in class man- 
agement will be an aid to any teacher, whether his 
personality makes management easy or whether it 
makes it difficult. 

Classification. — First among the many duties involved 
in the management of classes is the arrangement of the 
pupils in the grades for which they are fitted. This is 
usually denominated classification of pupils. In all well- 
regulated schools the teacher will find that his prede- 
cessor has provided a record of the classification of 
pupils and it is encumbent upon him to follow his prede- 
cessor's recorded classification. Unless he should find, 
after careful and continued investigation, that some 
part of his classification is radically wrong, he should 
adhere to it strictly. 

79 



80 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

Into every school will come some pupils who have 
not been classified. They will bring various statements 
from schools which they have attended, and these 
will be supplemented by added information from the 
parent or guardian. In such cases it is well for the 
teacher to be careful and deliberate before making a 
permanent classification of the pupil. It is especially 
important that he shall refrain from expressing any 
adverse criticism. The tactful teacher will not only 
succeed in classifying the pupil, but by due counsel and 
advice he will satisfy the pupil and the parents that the 
classification is the best one that could be made for the 
pupil's welfare. 

Program, — No thoughtful teacher will attempt to 
begin school without a carefully prepared program, both 
of study and recitation. This program will necessarily 
be tentative, but the teacher should either follow his 
program or change it so that it can be followed. By 
following the program is meant beginning the classes 
on time and closing the exercises on time. It is an item 
of no small moment that the teacher be on time in 
teaching : that he is punctual in beginning, punctual in 
closing, punctual in everything. Punctuality is an essen- 
tial element in the law of order, and therefore should be 
cultivated in the student body. The best way to do this 
is for the teacher himself to be an example of punctual- 
ity and insist that pupils shall be punctual in all things. 

In making a program due care should be taken to 



CLASS MANAGEMENT 



8l 



provide proper length of recitations and to avoid crowd- 
ing recitation periods too close together. The recitation 
period in the grades should vary in length from ten 
minutes in the primary grades to thirty minutes in the 
grammar grades. 

No teacher should adopt a program until he has 
modified it to suit his individual notion and to comply 
with the particular conditions in the school where it is 
to be used. This does not imply that there is no general 
plan in common use, but that details, so long as they 
violate no pedagogical principle, may be arranged to 
suit the local conditions. 

The following program is only a suggestive one, cop- 
ied from the 45th Annual Report, Department of Public 
Instruction, New York, 1903, Appendix 4. This pro- 
gram for a school arranged in four classes, by shorten- 
ing a few recitation periods, can easily be so amended 
as to provide four periods for individual instruction. 

Program 





Time 


First Year 


Third Year 


Sixth Year 


Eighth Year 


9.00 to 9.10 


Opening ex. 


Opening ex. 


Opening ex. 


Opening ex. 


9.10 " 9.30 


Reading 


Reading 


Reading 


Reading 


9.30 " 9.50 


Copying 


Reading 


Reading 


Reading 


9.50 " 10.10 


Employment 


Reading 


Arithmetic 


Arithmetic 


10.10 " 10.25 


Dismissed 


Arithmetic 


Reading 


Arithmetic 


10.25 " IO -35 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


Recess 


10.35 " 10.45 


Number 


Arithmetic 


Arithmetic 


Arithmetic 


1045 " 11.05 


Drawing 


Arithmetic 


Arithmetic 


Arithmetic 


11.05 " II > 2 5 


Employment 


Arithmetic 


Arithmetic 


History 


11.25 " n-45 


Dismissed 


Reading', Spelling 


Arithmetic 


History 


11.45 " 12.00 




English 


Geography 


History 



82 



PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 



Program — continued 



Time 


First Year 


Third Year 


Sixth Year 


Eighth Year 


i.oo " 


1.05 

1.20 
1.30 
i-45 
2.00 
2.20 
2-35 
2 45 

2.55 
3.00 
3-i5 
3-3° 
3-45 
4.00 


Singing or other exercises 


1.05 " 
1.20 " 
1.30 " 
i-45 " 
2.00 " 


Reading 
Copying 
Drawing 1 
Physiology 2 
Dismissed 


Reading, Spelling 

Reading, Spelling 

Drawing 1 

Physiology 2 

Miscellaneous 

Writing 

Recess 


Geography 
Geography 
Drawings- 
Geography 
Phys., English 
Writing 
Recess 


English 

English 

Drawing 1 

English 

English 

Physiology 

Recess 


2-35" 


Recess 


2-45 " 


General lessons 


2-55 " 
3.00 " 

3.15 " 


Miscellaneous 

Tracing 

Dismissed 


Geography 
Geography 
Geography 
Dismissed 


Phys., English 
Phys., English 3 
Spelling 
Spelling 
Spelling 


Civil government 
Phys., Civ. gov. 4 
Civil government 
Civil government 
Special work 


3-3° " 




3-45 " 







1 Drawing : two or three classes ; two recitations a week. 

2 Physiology : two classes ; two or three recitations a week. 

3 English : two classes ; three recitations a week ; more if possible. 

4 Civil government may be alternated with some other study. 

The second program (on page 83) is a suggestive 
program prepared for a crowded country school in which 
there are fifty pupils, and recitations are required in each 
of the eight grades. 

Class Instruction. — The first school consisted of the 
pupil and the teacher; but after schools became numer- 
ous a school consisted of the pupils and a teacher. Ne- 
cessity demands that one teacher must instruct many 
pupils. This kind of instruction is called class instruc- 
tion, and this is the kind of instruction in almost uni- 
versal use. It is in general use because of the many 
advantages it offers over individual instruction as well 



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84 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

as because of the fact that purely individual instruction 
is impossible in the public schools. 

When the class is called to recite, the teacher should 
announce the topic or ask the questions and then desig- 
nate a pupil to recite. If for any reason the teacher 
requires another pupil to recite on the same topic or 
question, each member of the class will be benefited by 
listening to the treatment of the subject from the differ- 
ent view points of the reciting pupils. When all pupils 
have recited, if there is any added light to be thrown 
on the subject, the teacher gives additional instruction 
and each member of the class is benefited by this added 
information; so that when class instruction is properly 
given, twenty or thirty pupils have investigated the sub- 
ject from several individual view points and the time 
occupied is not much greater than that which would be 
required for one pupil to recite by the individual method. 

Individual Instruction. — If teachers follow a pro- 
gram of continuous recitations throughout the school, 
day, many pupils, through lack of application or proper 
direction from the teacher, will fail to make thorough 
preparation and in course of time fall behind the class. 
Frequently teachers remain after school to help these 
delinquents and to try to get them to strive more ear- 
nestly to keep up with the class. Frequently this keep- 
ing in after school is an annoyance to the parents and 
very inconvenient for the teacher, while it is usually in- 
jurious to the child. 



CLASS MANAGEMENT 85 

If teachers have no definite periods during the regu- 
lar school hours at which individual instruction may be 
given, these pupils who are falling behind are apt to 
become discouraged and fail to make proper effort. 
Every teacher should so arrange his program that 
there will be a period between recitations during which 
he may inspect the seat work of the pupils, and during 
this inspection, whenever it is necessary, he should give 
such encouragement or instruction to individual pupils as 
will stimulate them to try and maintain their class 
standing. This individual instruction should be pro- 
vided for as a regular part of the day's teaching, and 
not as an occasional or accidental exercise. 

The Batavia Plan. — In 1898 Superintendent John 
Kennedy of Batavia, New York, reported to the Board 
of Education that an additional teacher was needed in 
the grades. The Board were willing to provide an extra 
teacher, but all the schoolrooms were occupied. One 
of the schoolrooms was very large and had a seating 
capacity for sixty or seventy pupils. This condition 
suggested to the superintendent that as an expedient 
they might place two teachers in this room and have 
one keep the room and help the pupils with their 
studies while the other conducted recitations. Upon 
his recommendation the board so provided. The suc- 
cess of this plan was so pronounced that other large 
rooms in the Batavia schools were similarly organized, 
and in each instance exceptionally good results followed. 



86 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

After this the whole system of the Batavia city schools 
was organized in such a way that the teachers employed 
half their time in class recitations and half in individual 
instruction. This movement attracted the attention of 
educators throughout the whole country, and many school 
systems have copied the principal features of the Batavia 
plan. 

It is not here asserted that this proportion of class 
instruction and individual instruction is the proper one, 
but without doubt proper school management would 
include some individual instruction given in a regular 
and systematic way according to a definitely arranged 
program. 

Tactics. — In the good old days now nearly forgotten 
the teacher called in metallic tones, "Third reader class ! " 
"Geography class!" or "Mental arithmetic class!" etc., 
and a shuffling of feet and slouching forward to the 
long recitation bench followed. To-day many teachers 
are advanced but a few degrees beyond such methods. 
They have learned certain signals and tactics and use 
them in a lifeless manner. It is not uncommon to hear 
the teacher say in a monotone, " B class in reading rise ! 
pass ! be seated ! " without ever giving any attention to 
whether the signals are being obeyed accurately or dis- 
regarded. Whatever the signals in class tactics, they 
should be given in a quiet, yet distinct, well-punctuated 
manner, and the teacher's eye should note accurately 
that one signal has been promptly and quietly obeyed 



CLASS MANAGEMENT 87 

before another is given. Signals should always be 
given in a pleasant, proper tone of voice. If the teacher 
designates the classes and gives taps as signals, a lead 
pencil is a far better instrument for tapping than a 
hammer. Signals should be given so as not to attract 
the attention of pupils who are studying or to startle 
the pupils who are expected to obey the command, 
and certainly not in such a manner as to alarm the com- 
munity. 

Seat Habits. — The teacher should assume and the 
pupils expect that non-reciting pupils should so demean 
themselves that they will occasion no annoyance to any 
one in the schoolroom. But unless students are drilled 
in their seat habits this conduct will not be the rule. 
Order is the first condition to active cooperation in 
school, and the laws of order involve the law of silence. 

Pupils should not be permitted to indulge in the 
practice of " lip study." There is no more reason why 
pupils should use their lips in whispered tones while 
studying than that they should repeat the words aloud. 

If it is argued that the student body will soon become 
so accustomed to the lip study that they will not be 
annoyed thereby, it might be argued with equal force 
that the same student body would become accustomed 
to the noise of studying aloud. Neither of these posi- 
tions is tenable. All unnecessary noise in the school- 
room creates friction and should be eliminated. 

Perhaps with many pupils the real reason for per- 



88 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

sisting in lip study is that when lip study prevails, it is 
very difficult for the teacher to know whether the pupil 
is whispering to his neighbor or whether he is studying 
his lesson. 

It need not be argued that whispering is an annoying 
and needless evil habit in the schoolroom. It usually 
occurs in an annoying manner when seat mates become 
chummy. Whenever seat mates or pupils sitting near 
each other become so chummy that their fondness for 
each other detracts their attention from study, and their 
attention to each other attracts the attention of the class, 
the teacher should separate them. 

The attitude of reciting pupils should be one of com- 
posure and thoughtfulness. This does not preclude a 
spirit of enthusiasm, but the violent snapping of fingers 
and waving of hands sometimes witnessed during a reci- 
tation is more properly physical exercise than mental 
drill. If the teacher were partially deaf, it might be 
necessary for a pupil to make considerable noise in 
order to attract his attention and gain permission to 
recite. On the other hand, if the teacher is so nearly 
blind as not to be able to see the pupil's hand when it is 
stationary, it might be permissible for the pupil to wave 
his hand, even frantically, to gain the teacher's atten- 
tion; but a teacher who has normal sense of sight and 
hearing is inexcusable if he gets into the habit of allow- 
ing the recitation period to be diverted from its real 
purpose — thoughtful expression — to that of violent 
physical exercise. There should be a time for calis- 



CLASS MANAGEMENT 89 

thenics, but these exercises do not properly form part 
of the ordinary recitation. 

Neatness. — The best results cannot be obtained if the 
schoolroom is not kept in a neat, orderly manner. The 
ethical effect of an attractive, well-kept schoolroom is 
not to be overlooked. A teacher who would allow his 
own desk, books, and papers to become disarranged — 
who does not keep himself and his schoolroom property 
in perfect order — has no moral right to insist upon 
great neatness in the class habits of his pupils. The 
teacher should be equally neat. No work should be 
placed on the board in a slovenly manner; no work 
should be left on the board unless it is neat work, and 
then only when it is to be used at some subsequent time. 
It is easy to keep the blackboard erased; in fact, easier 
and more economical than to keep it filled with awk- 
ward figures and scrawling letters. It is easier to keep 
the floor free from scraps of paper and crayon than to 
keep it littered. Pupils will delight in caring for these 
little details of neatness provided the teacher leads by 
his example. When the teacher's desk, the blackboard, 
and the floor are kept in a neat and tidy condition, it 
is no trouble, and in fact is a pleasure, to a majority of 
pupils to keep their desks and their books in a similarlv 
tidy condition. If such habits of neatness can be incul- 
cated, — and they can easily be inculcated, — the pupils 
have received a lasting benefit, and the burden of class 
management will have been greatly reduced. 



90 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

Grades. — The grades which are entered upon the 
pupil's monthly report card, and form a part of the per- 
manent record of the school, should be based upon 
progress in the class determined largely by daily recita- 
tion. Examinations as a means of promotion in ele- 
mentary schools should not be employed. If the 
teacher who hears the pupil recite each day in the 
month does not know before examination whether 
the pupil has made his grade, he does not know after 
the examination. Examinations are, however, valuable 
as a review and as a test of the teacher's work. But 
when examinations are used as a test for promotion, and 
results are issued in per cent, it is quite difficult to 
understand how Johnnie, who made an average of 
69.1%, and therefore did not pass, is much below Susie, 
who made an average of exactly 70%, and therefore 
passed. Class standing should be recorded on report 
cards by rank. A pupil is either good, bad, or indif- 
ferent, and may be so designated ; but the accurate 
distinction between the scholarship of pupils whose 
averages vary only a few hundredths requires keener 
discernment than the ordinary teacher possesses. 

Reviews. — Reviews are, perhaps, the most beneficial 
recitation, because they recall and deepen concepts and 
memory images that the pupils have acquired, and there- 
fore are permanent, in their results. 

Ethics. — The democratic organization of the school fac- 
tors places each student upon equality with every other 



CLASS MANAGEMENT 91 

student, and every student should have a proper regard 
for each of his fellow-students. No less essential is it 
that the teacher should have proper regard for each 
and every pupil. This proper regard for others is 
manifested in courteous treatment and consideration, 
and its expression in the aggregate is termed politeness. 
True politeness is based upon appreciation of our fel- 
lows, but the expression which we call politeness is 
often largely a matter of form. Pupils may have 
proper regard for fellow-pupils, and yet their intercourse 
with each other and their conduct toward each other 
might not appear polite. It is a function of the school 
organization to teach habits of politeness ; to require 
each member of the school to be polite toward each 
other member of the school community. It is the duty 
of the teacher to be an example of politeness and to 
lead the pupils to form habits of politeness. 

The complex organism of school is perpetuated only 
by the cooperation of the various members. It is es- 
sential that the relation of each factor to each other 
factor and to the whole organization be a truthful rela- 
tion ; that each expression of the different members of 
the student body be a truthful expression ; that each 
student understands clearly that he owes it to the 
student body to be truthful in all his communications. 
This would imply refraining from any dishonesties in 
recitation, in review, in examination, and in all the 
school exercises. 

Truthfulness includes all forms of fair and honest 



92 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

dealing and is essential to unity in any organization. 
If the school organization can cultivate habits of truth- 
fulness, habits of fair and honest dealing, its value is 
permanent. 

Weakness is the penalty for inaction ; strength the 
reward of effort. In the school organization the 
weaker pupil knows that he must exert himself or else 
he will either delay the progress of the class or fall be- 
hind. He knows that he must be industrious or the 
penalty will follow, and the school organization under 
the direction of the teacher seeks to cultivate industry. 
A school is not a place of entertainment, but a work- 
shop. Its purpose is to do — to do in order to grow. 
Pupils should be taught that work is not drudgery, 
but development ; not degrading, but ennobling. The 
very object of the schoolroom is industry — effort — 
effort to lift the pupil from the real to the ideal. The 
whole purpose of the school is ethical. It is intended 
to develop the pupils by cultivating the intellectual 
activities and the emotional and volitional experiences. 
School life is really a transition from the family to the 
larger, more complex social life of the world. 

A strict sense of justice should characterize every 
act of the teacher in the schoolroom and should guide 
the pupils in their conduct. Herbert Spencer has said 
in this connection that " every man has freedom to do 
as he will, provided he infringes not on the equal free- 
dom of any other man." A clear understanding of 
this principle will project into the school-life lines of 



CLASS MANAGEMENT 93 

conduct which pupils will by their own natures be im- 
pelled to follow. Justice impels us to respect the 
rights of others. In the larger social organism — the 
state — the member who does not respect the rights of 
other members finds himself antagonized by the whole 
organism, usually resulting in punishment, unless the 
unruly member reforms and revises his actions. In the 
class any misconduct is an infringement on the rights 
of the other members and is honestly resented by them. 
This disapproval of the class is the strongest controlling 
power for discipline. 

When any foreign power infringes upon the right of 
our country, our sense of justice is outraged. It is also 
aroused and intensified. Intensified justice constitutes 
active patriotism. This may be occasioned by injustice 
to our country from a foreign power or from one or more 
of our own citizens. Patriotism impels us to fight for 
our country or to live for our country — to see that 
our home land receives justice. This principle can be 
developed by proper class management. 

Pupils not only pass from the family life into school 
membership and from school membership into citizen- 
ship within the nation, but they also pass into a world 
citizenship. Altruism is based upon this world citizen, 
ship and is higher than patriotism. While patriotism 
impels us to respect the rights of others, altruism impels 
us to promote the rights of others, to seek for the good 
of others. Justice may be stern and exacting ; the 
patriot will defend the rights of his country in battle, at 



94 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

home, or at the ballot box ; the altruist will sacrifice self 
for the good of others. He is given to the exercise of 
kindness, gentleness, mercy, and love, but in the end 
these have more value to the giver than to him who 
receives. Not only should class management develop a 
spirit of justice and patriotism, but it should also develop 
a spirit of kindness, gentleness, mercy, love — it should 
lead to altruism. 






CHAPTER XI 

THE TEACHER 

The secret of success in the schoolroom lies almost 
wholly in the spirit of the teacher. Knowledge of sub- 
ject-matter and skill in methods are added advantages. 
A knowledge of the history of educational thought or 
any other professional training makes possible better 
teaching and insures greater success in the schoolroom ; 
but after all, aside from the student body, the greatest 
factor for good is the proper spirit and character of the 
teacher. 

Personality. — Good physical, mental, and moral qual- 
ities of the teacher are essential. No teacher should be 
employed who has any physical defect which would in 
any way influence his work or detract from his useful- 
ness as an example. A teacher should have a healthy, 
well-developed body. Physically he should be at least 
not defective. 

The mental qualities of the teacher are, however, 
more important than the physical qualities. Not only 
should a teacher have a. mind capable of understanding 
text-book information, but he should have a mind so 
alert that he will be able to make his knowledge an 
instrument of intellectual culture. 

95 



96 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

Industry. — " In the school, as elsewhere, good, hon- 
est toil is a remedy for many of those ills that come 
where idleness and looseness prevail. Every boy who 
does a piece of work thoroughly and completely is a 
different boy from what he was before." 1 

As industry is an essential in class management it 
should be exemplified in the teacher. Pupils cannot 
continue to grow if placed under the watchful care of a 
teacher who has ceased to be a student. Neither can 
they develop habits of industry under the guidance of 
one who is not industrious. It is frequently asserted, 
and sometimes truthfully asserted, that the teacher is 
inclined to be inactive and lazy. When this is the case, 
the individual should be classed as a school keeper in 
contradistinction to school teacher. An inactive person 
cannot lead, cannot draw out, cannot educate. 

Integrity. — In all matters it is essential that the 
teacher be not only honest, but that he should possess 
integrity. Integrity reaches farther than honesty. A 
business man may take advantage of the conditions and 
gain profit at the expense of others. He will still be 
called honest, but his action has not been characterized 
by integrity. The teacher should exemplify in his con- 
duct the principles of integrity. 

Cheerfulness. — One of the most distressing sights is 
that of a class of bright, active, happy pupils under the 
direction of a nagging, unhappy teacher. Above all 
1 Samuel T. Dutton. 



THE TEACHER 97 

things, he who aspires to teach should possess a happy 
disposition. School boards frequently jest about em- 
ploying the best-looking teachers, but there is more 
philosophy than foolishness in such selections ; not that 
a pretty face is indicative of power to teach, but a face 
that reveals a happy disposition is evidence of one of 
the most important qualifications of a teacher. Good 
health and a happy disposition, with a bright mind and 
a lofty purpose, are essential qualifications. Beauty is 
not essential, but intelligence and happiness should be 
written in the face of a true teacher. 

A teacher should also possess patience and sympa- 
thy. Perhaps sympathy is the strongest element in the 
life of a teacher. The heart of the child will respond 
quickly to loving words or kind deeds, but a teacher 
who is not sympathetic need not expect his pupils to be 
responsive. A teacher should possess patience, but he 
should combine this with firmness. His conduct should 
display an abiding interest in the welfare of each indi- 
vidual pupil, and he should see their faults as improper 
growth in character which should be eliminated by the 
cultivation of proper habits. His firmness should insist 
that correct habits be formed by the pupils, but insist- 
ence should not in this case amount to severity. 

The teacher should possess serenity of disposition. 
If a mischievous pupil can by " habitual forgetfulness " 
in matters of conduct annoy the teacher, it is quite 
probable that he will continue in this habit. The teacher 
should be so adjusted mentally that his equilibrium will 



98 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

not be disturbed by every schoolroom excitement. 
When a teacher allows himself to fret, he loses thereby 
the greater power of reason, and surely he needs all of 
his faculties in the schoolroom. Teachers should 
remember that power works with ease; weakness frets 
continually. The teacher who is not patriotic has not 
a sense of justice high enough to be of great value as 
a leader of children. Not only should a teacher be 
patriotic, but he should be broad enough in his sympathy 
and deep enough in his convictions to be altruistic. 

Habits. — No person is prepared to teach who has not 
acquired proper habits. Indeed, the process of educa- 
tion is a process of forming habits — habits of thought, 
habits of politeness, habits of conduct, habits of integ- 
rity. The uneducated person has not a trained mind ; 
that is, he has not acquired proper habits of thought. 
He is doubtless uncouth ; he has not formed habits of 
politeness. If he is truthful, he has been educated in 
the home until he has formed the habit of truthfulness. 
No other factor in education is so important as habit. 
If habit could be taken out of our civilization, instead 
of order and system we would have disorder and anarchy. 
Now, in youth we own our habits ; later in life we are 
owned by our habits. Therefore the person who has 
arrived at maturity without having formed good habits 
is not a fit person for an example in the schoolroom. 
It is not necessary to enumerate here the bad habits 
in the list of " don'ts," but only to discuss habit as an 



THE TEACHER 99 

educational factor. The intelligent teacher can investi- 
gate personal habits in detail for himself. 

Training. — J. G. Fitch has said with truth that — " A 
true teacher never thinks his education complete, but is 
always seeking to add to his knowledge. The moment 
any man ceases to be a systematic student he ceases to 
be an effective teacher." And David P. Page urges all 
who propose to teach " to recollect that the very basis 
of fitness for teaching, so far as it can be gained from 
study, is a broad and accurate scholarship." 

A teacher who has not had academic training equiva- 
lent to a good four years' high school course, supple- 
mented with professional training, is deficient in scholar- 
ship for grade teaching. A teacher who has not had 
collegiate training equivalent to a bachelor's degree, 
in a reputable institution, and this supplemented by 
professional training, is deficient in scholarship for 
high school or academic teaching. By a reputable in- 
stitution of higher education is meant a college or 
university which is in its requirements at least equal to 
the standard of the better American colleges. Our 
educational standards are low enough at best, and it is 
an insult to the teaching profession for so-called colleges 
which are in reality only academies — second-class 
academic institutions at that — to pretend to confer 
degrees. It is a lack of professional spirit for one 
claiming to be a teacher to offer as evidence of scholar- 
ship diplomas from such institutions. 



100 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

Adequate professional training for a teacher includes 
a knowledge of elementary psychology, history of edu- 
cation, philosophy of teaching, methods and manage- 
ment, school law and practice teaching. There are 
many excellent teachers who have neither had this ideal 
training nor its full equivalent; but they have, at the 
expense of the schools in which they were employed, 
learned the science and art of teaching by experience. 
This, however, is an expensive and needless method of 
preparing teachers. 

If teachers were properly prepared before they were 
certificated, teaching would rise to the proper position 
of a profession. When teachers are properly prepared 
and certificated, it is worse than useless to have them 
frequently examined in order to grant them only short 
lived or temporary certificates. A license to teach 
should be a license for life, just as a license to practice 
law or medicine is a license for life. When teachers 
are required to have full literary and professional train- 
ing, then, and not until then, the state should issue them 
permanent license to practice their profession. 

Who would employ to prescribe for his family in sick- 
ness one who had never graduated in a medical college 
or received professional training in the science and art 
which go to make up the profession of medicine ? 
Answer, no one. Who would intrust an important case 
in court, involving large interests, to a professed lawyer 
who had never graduated in a law school and served an 
apprenticeship ? Answer, no one. Who would intrust 



THE TEACHER ioi 

the physical, mental, and moral well-being of all the 
children in a community to a professed teacher who had 
never graduated from a literary or professional school 
or served an apprenticeship in practice teaching ? 
Answer, . . . Reader, consider these parallels of con- 
ditions in important professions and determine for your- 
self whether teachers, as a rule, are properly trained in 
our own country. 

Responsibility. — The teacher is responsible to the 
school for his personal example. First, he is respon- 
sible for his personal appearance. No teacher should 
appear untidy in his dress. It is not necessary that his 
apparel be expensive, or that his dress be of the latest 
style ; in fact, it is better that his dress should be plain ; 
that it should attract no attention on account of being 
untidy or highly fashionable. Care of the hair, nails, 
and teeth should not be forgotten, as these small details 
are necessary to proper personal appearance. 

A teacher's moral standing in the community should 
be unquestionable. There is no more potent factor for 
good than the example of a noble Christian teacher. 
There are many acts which are not in themselves sins, 
but which are distasteful to the people whose children 
are under the teacher's care. In such cases the teacher 
can well afford to refrain from these questionable acts. 
Paul said, " If meat make my brother to offend, I will 
eat no flesh while the world standeth." The perform- 
ance of a certain act, the enjoyment of a certain pleas- 



102 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

ure, might in nowise defile the teacher, but if it offend 
the moral sense of the community, or any considerable 
portion of the community, it will detract from the 
teacher's usefulness. When Horace Mann sat on a 
stool at the table in Antioch, partaking of food indif- 
ferently cooked, some one said to him, " Mr. Mann, 
how can you endure all this ? " He replied, " I can 
endure all things for the sake of these young people." 
The conscientious teacher can well afford, when ques- 
tioned as to why he refrains from certain "innocent" 
amusements, to say, " I would rather refrain from these 
pleasures than to forfeit the confidence of the people of 
the district, or to lessen my influence over the pupils 
under my charge." It will not usually be necessary, 
however, for the teacher to make any explanation. He 
will always have some duties to perform which will re- 
quire his attention, and he can always, with due courtesy, 
ask to be excused, and keep silent regarding the con- 
duct of others. It is well for young teachers to re- 
member that when gossip goes the rounds, silence is 
golden. 

These statements do not argue that the teacher 
should not have positive ideas of right and wrong, or 
that he should not willingly incur opposition and criti- 
cism to avoid doing wrong; but when his conduct in- 
volves no sacrifice of principle, let him keep it in accord 
with the ethical judgment of the best people in the 
community. 

No teacher can afford to criticise another teacher. 



THE TEACHER 103 

He cannot afford to lower himself to an unprofessional 
plane. The professional spirit is necessary in all the 
members of the teaching body. This professional spirit 
includes more than a proper regard for the standing of 
fellow-teachers ; it includes a will to protect the stand- 
ing of fellow-teachers and to be identified with the 
organized effort of pupils in their strife to attain the 
ideal conditions from the real. That is, the profes- 
sional spirit, in addition to exerting itself for the good of 
fellow-teachers, impels the teacher to feel that he is 
responsible in part for the progress or the failure of 
his pupils. 

" Education can only develop and form, not create. 
It cannot undertake to form a being into anything 
other than it was destined to be by the endowments 
originally received at the hands of nature. Education 
can only develop and unfold ; it cannot create anything 
new." * 

The teacher has also the responsibility to himself. 
He knows full well that he cannot give mind to pupils, 
or develop what God did not create. It is well, how- 
ever, for him not to publish his knowledge of the 
defects of children under his charge. Here, again, 
silence is golden. The least utterance of his which 
would tend to disparage unfortunate pupils would be 
repeated and possibly multiplied. Certain it is that it 
would not be diminished. There are seemingly few 
exceptions to the rule that the teacher becomes the 

1 Rosenkranz. 



104 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

subject of conversation and criticism wherever pupils 
or patrons are congregated. These discussions of the 
teacher may be with good intent, but if the teacher is 
indiscreet enough to make damaging statements, he may 
be sure that these will be repeated and form the subject 
of comment. 

Above all of these things the teacher should do 
what he believes to be right, and refrain from doing 
that which he believes to be wrong. He should per- 
form his duty as he sees it — perform his whole duty, 
and then if results do not follow in every instance, he 
should not worry. He is not primarily responsible for 
the deficiency in the mental make-up of pupils or the 
disinclination on the part of parents to cooperate with 
the school. He should strive to retain his own self- 
respect; to secure his own approbation, which is his 
greatest reward. 



The inspiration of the school is the presence of the living teacher 

— W. H. Payne. 

None but true ladies and gentlemen should be employed as teach- 
ers. — John A. Vincent. 

Society is waiting, calling, earnestly, anxiously, for men and 
women of broader culture and nobler nature — men and women of 
quick intelligence, of enlightened understanding, of large heart and 
generous impulse, to take these little ones by the hand and lead 
them into the pleasant ways of wisdom, virtue, usefulness, and hap- 
piness, — George Howland, 



PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 105 

The teacher should be patient, full of hope, of a cheerful spirit, 
generous, a lover of children, full of benevolence, just, a lover of 
order, a reverencer of God and his laws, conscientious, firm, with a 
talent to command. — The School and the Schoolmaster . 



The Schoolmaster's Prayer 

Lord, deliver the laddies before Thee from lying, cheating, 
cowardice, and laziness, which are as the devil. Be pleased to put 
common sense in their hearts, and give them grace to be honest 
men all the days of their life. — Ian Maclaren in " Young 
Barbarians.' 1 ' 1 



CHAPTER XII 

PUNISHMENT 

Perhaps no ground within the field of pedagogical 
research has been trodden with more trepitude than 
this which we now propose to traverse. Discussions 
by pedagogical writers usually include discipline, and 
contain ample advice as to what to avoid, without giving 
directions regarding the proper course to pursue when 
administering correctives. In this article we shall dis- 
cuss not only the fundamental principles which underlie 
theories of corrective discipline, but also actual condi- 
tions which arise in everyday school life. 

Purposes of Order. — There are two broad general 
aims in securing order in the schoolroom; namely, to 
secure order for order's sake that there may be quietude 
to promote study and work, and to cultivate the power 
of self -direction in pupils, that they may become com- 
petent to adjust themselves to their environment at 
present and in later years, and thereby develop into 
law-abiding citizens. 

Rewards. — The means employed to secure order are 
usually classified as hope of reward and fear of punish- 
ment, and the tendency in modern government is from 



PUNISHMENT 10? 

the latter toward the former. Those who lead in this 
advancement follow the rule that all just punishments 
are remedial. 

Nature of Punishments. — Among savages punish- 
ment rests upon revenge — getting even with the 
offender. Whenever this element is apparent in the 
punishment inflicted by a teacher, it is evidence of a 
lack of refinement and a sense of justice. 

Among civilized people, the history of punishment 
reveals the fact that whenever school punishments have 
differed materially in kind from punishments inflicted 
in the best homes, or by the state, they have been con- 
demned by public opinion. To illustrate, when crimi- 
nals were placed in the stocks by the law, it was not 
considered improper for the teacher to use the dunce 
cap — the trouble is that the school is not quite keeping 
pace with the state. Again, when the adult delinquent 
was punished at the whipping post, the delinquent 
pupil might expect to be flogged for missing three 
words in the old blue-backed speller. " Lickin' " and 
" larnin' " went together. Query : Which was the first 
abandoned — the whipping post for adults or the birch 
rod in school ? A teacher who has tact enough to keep 
her pupils busy during study hours will not punish her 
pupils for having poor lessons. 

It is noted with satisfaction that as civilization has 
advanced, or in other words, as intelligence and virtue 
have increased, punishments have become less and less 



108 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

severe, and tend more and more to become remedial. 
It is also noticeable that under such conditions hope 
of reward operates more and more as an incentive, and 
fear of punishment is less and less used as a means of 
securing obedience to authority. Let it be distinctly 
understood that hope of reward as herein used does 
not mean the cheap device of prizes offered for good 
behavior, but the reward that includes self-approval, as 
well as the approbation of teacher and fellow-pupils. 
This kind of reward is forcibly illustrated in the pupil 
government instituted in many progressive schools. 

The most frequent punishment should be the with- 
holding or withdrawal of privileges abused. The same 
means may be employed to serve as a reward, for when 
the pupil gives evidence that he will not abuse present 
privileges, other privileges may be granted until he 
becomes free rather than restrained in his daily work. 
This use of privileges serves to secure proper obedience 
to authority by acting at once as either a fear of punish- 
ment or a hope of reward. 

Corporal Punishment. — Teachers agree that it is 
sometimes very remedial to administer corporal punish- 
ment to an incorrigible who becomes rebellious, espe- 
cially if this is the corrective to which he has been 
accustomed at home. Note that the term used is 
incorrigible when rebellious, not when lazy or mis- 
chievous. If there is open rebellion and the dignity 
or the authority of the school (not the dignity of the 



PUNISHMENT 109 

teacher) is involved, do not hesitate; maintain order — 
you cannot do otherwise. But do not use drastic means 
when milder means would serve. 

There is, however, a more serious condition than this 
in our schools ; that is, when a pupil is habitually unruly 
or obstreperous, when he is not really a fit member of 
the student body. If we had reform schools, such a case 
would be easily adjusted ; but when expulsion means 
loss of all culture and training, it seems that it might be 
justifiable to use corporal punishment as an example, 
and make the example so plain that other students 
might understand. This is, of course, not an ideal way, 
and is not prescribed for ideal conditions. If the pupil 
may be sent to some reformatory school, let him go ; 
but if he must be cast out on the street, remember the 
words of Solomon, and govern yourself accordingly. 
Do not consider this a privilege to be rushed into, but 
as an unpleasant duty that must be performed in order 
to save the child. Be deliberate and judicious. 

It is not argued that corporal punishment is a proper 
corrective ; but when necessity presents two evils, — ex- 
pulsion to remove a bad example of conduct from the 
student body or corporal punishment, not with any 
certainty of remedial effect upon the pupil punished, 
but to deter others from following, and at the same time 
keep the refractory member in school, that he may 
not become a hardened criminal, — then choose the 
lesser of two evils, and the lesser appears to be corporal 
punishment. 



110 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

Teachers — true teachers, one and all — wish that 
corporal punishment could be abolished in the schools, 
but until it is less frequently used in the home, and 
until schools of correction are established, it will be use- 
less for us to attempt to abolish this last remedy for re- 
bellious incorrigibles. But let teachers remember that 
it is better to prevent wrongdoing than to punish for 
wrongs done. 

"Through discipline rather than instruction the teacher renders 
it possible for the child in youth and the adult in later life to raise 
himself to higher levels of living." 

From simply commanding he should proceed to explain the 
reasons of his commands ; from these again to the expression of 
desires and the manifestations of a generous confidence, and from 
these to the frequent option and discretion of the child, preparatory 
to the moment of giving him entirely into his own hands. 

— William T. Harris. 

The prevention of crime is the duty of society. But society has 
no right to punish crime at one end if it does nothing to prevent it 
at the other end. Society's chief concern should be to remove 
causes from which crime springs. It is as much a duty to prevent 
crime as it is to punish crime. — Sarah B. Cooper. 



CHAPTER XIII 

TEACHING MAXIMS 

A sitting, dreaming, inactive teacher cannot inspire 
pupils. 

Nothing can take the place of earnestness in the 
schoolroom ; but, to be effective, it must be genuine. 

Teachers, especially young teachers, talk too much. 
If they would divide their words by two, their efficiency 
would thus be multiplied by four. 

Telling is not teaching. When a pupil has exerted 
every reasonable effort to secure the desired informa- 
tion, then, but not until then, should the teacher "tell" 
him. 

A teacher's aim should be to keep every child in 
school and to create and maintain an interest in every 
class. 

The personality of the teacher is the real power in 
every school. A school may inspire and develop men- 
tal and moral power or it may stupefy and destroy them 
— this depends almost wholly upon the personality of 
the teacher. 



112 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

Try to inspect the tones of voice you use habitually 
in the schoolroom. 

Do not fret or worry — power works with ease ; 
weakness frets continually. 

To repeat the answers given by pupils is to encour- 
age inattention. Every member of the class should be 
held strictly to account for each answer given. Strict 
attention in the recitation should become a fixed habit. 

Teacher, you often write complaining notes to par- 
ents. How often do you write encouragingly to them ? 
How much would a tired mother's heartache be relieved 
if she should receive a note from you stating that John- 
nie is doing well in his studies, and that if he continues 
so to do, he will be promoted ? 

Do not promote your pupils unless you are quite sure 
they are prepared for promotion. Lack of thorough- 
ness is the crying evil of the common schools. 

Do not try to get all the pupils into the high school, 
or into higher studies. Nothing will float you so buoy- 
antly at first, and nothing will so surely sink you in the 
end. 

Do not get up a part of your class for a " show off.'' 
When you are visited by the superintendent or parent, 
let every part of your school be shown and let honest 
work be done. Every "show off" is a reflection on 
your honesty and a slander against your school. Your 



TEACHING MAXIMS 113 

pupils honestly resent it and they charge you with dis- 
honorable motives. 

The teacher who does not have a place for every- 
thing and everything in its place — who is not orderly 
in his personal habits ; who does not keep desk and 
papers in perfect order — has no moral right to com- 
plain of petty disorder in pupils. 

A teacher who allows himself to be tardy, or who is 
not habitually on time with all his work, has no moral 
right to complain of irregularities in the attendance of 
pupils. Such a teacher should correct his own habits 
or quit the profession. 

Teachers, be generous with kind words. Into the 
lives of many who come to you is cast much gloom and 
little sunshine. If you doubt, go to their homes and 
you will soon be convinced that the children do not, as 
a rule, hear too many kind words. Of course, justice 
must often be stern with childish willfulness ; but when- 
ever you can, let justice, when meted out to childhood, 
be tempered with mercy. 

Do your pupils wave hands and snap fingers to 
attract your attention in class ? If the teacher is par- 
tially deaf or almost blind, this performance may be 
necessary ; but if the teacher can see and hear, these 
are very annoying habits and certainly are not indica- 
tive of a thoughtful attitude on the part of pupils. 



114 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

When a pupil answers in an indefinite or incorrect 
manner, the teacher should simply say again, and from 
that the pupil should know that his answer is to be 
revised. Frequent and persistent use of the little word 
again will accomplish wonderful results in diminishing 
the number of careless answers. 

Teachers who can find no time to read professional 
literature or attend teachers' institutes should be re- 
lieved of the burden of teaching. 

Do not help your pupils too much. If they ever 
walk alone, they must first learn to stand alone. Help- 
ing them to help themselves is teaching ; helping them 
to do their work or doing their work for them is not 
teaching. " He who avoids exertion must remain weak." 
You do them a kindness if you see to it that they learn 
their lessons ; you do them an injury if you prepare 
their lessons for them. 

Duty well done is the only true claim that any 
teacher has for reappointment, and is the only require- 
ment that a school board has a right to make. Every 
teacher should feel that there is a tenure of position 
which will end when good, honest work ceases. Some- 
times school boards do not reemploy teachers known to 
be competent, because they think that these teachers 
are too " high priced." When such conditions arise, 
it is well to remember that nothing is so costly as incom- 
petence, nothing so cheap as ability. 



TEACHING MAXIMS 115 

Incompetence is seldom reemployed except by school 
boards. Before directors conclude to drop a teacher, 
however, they should be very certain that a much better 
teacher can be secured. Sometimes the incompetency 
is not known to the directors. If such is the case, it is 
their own fault, for they should inform themselves as to 
what is being done that they may vote intelligently ; 
and when justice demands it, they should not hesitate 
on account of business, church, political, family, or any 
other relations, to vote against the retention of an 
incompetent teacher. 

Would you employ a person for your physician who 
had never attended a medical school, read a medical 
journal, or spent any time as an apprentice under a 
competent physician ? Would you employ as the teacher 
of your children one who had never had any normal 
training, studied the art of teaching, or served an ap- 
prenticeship in the schoolroom ? 

What an average pupil accomplishes in school de- 
pends upon what is required of him and by whom the 
requirement is made. 

An average pupil needs the stimulating influence of 
an earnest, working teacher ; he needs the personal 
influence of an aggressive, exacting, sympathetic per- 
sonality. 

When a teacher has both intelligence and devotion, he 
should be let alone for the most part. The wise super- 



Il6 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

intendent does not meddle. It is his business to know- 
that the teacher is headed toward the goal and is going 
forward with reasonable rapidity. To know when to 
keep silent is one of the highest qualifications of a 
supervisor. A superintendent is not necessarily indif- 
ferent to clear and positive ways of arriving at results 
which he himself would follow if the teaching were left 
to him, but he must be tall enough to look over his own 
fences, and see that his is not the only road to educa- 
tional success. 

In some particulars the country schools are the most 
important part of our great school system. If we are 
to judge the future by the past, a large majority of the 
men and women who will be most prominent and influ- 
ential in the nation forty years hence are those who are 
laying the foundation of their education in the country 
schools of to-day. 

The tactful teacher not only studies the pupils, but he 
studies the parents as well. He seeks to arouse the 
interest of the parents in the school. At first parents 
may seem indifferent, but if you observe closely, you 
will find that the interests of parents are centered in 
their children, and when you have convinced them that 
you are interested in their children and that you really 
are helping them to build up a stronger manhood and. 
womanhood, then you will have secured the parents' 
cooperation, and will have assured the success of your 
school. 



TEACHING MAXIMS 117 

During the opening week of school is the opportune 
time for teachers to secure the cooperation of parents. 
If an opportunity does not seem to present itself then, 
make one. A personal talk, showing your interest in the 
children and giving suggestions about the best methods 
for each individual child is the most effective plan. 
This, however, is not always possible, and the tactful 
teacher will either "find a way or make one " that will 
reach the parents of every child in the district. 

No school can be an entire success unless the parents 
take an active interest in all that concerns it. It is idle 
to demand or expect the teacher to display great zeal in 
school work when the parents are indifferent in regard 
to the school. 

Doubtful Amusements. — Every year the same discus- 
sions are had as to what amusements are proper and 
what are improper for teachers. With the awakening 
of the discussion of moral and religious training in 
school, these questions are likely to become more serious 
and affect the standing of the teacher more than ever. 

Without entering into this discussion with reference 
to specific amusements, we wish to place a principle 
before young teachers which, if followed, will keep them 
free from censure. 

Young teacher, since you occupy in a measure the 
relation of parent to your own pupils, it is reasonable 
to suppose that your influence upon their moral develop- 



Il8 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

ment will be vital, hence you should be careful as to 
your conduct, for parents will scrutinize and perhaps 
criticise your actions. When in doubt as to any given 
course relative to " questionable amusements," do nothing 
that you would not wish your own parents to do. 



CHAPTER XIV 

SELF-DIRECTION 

In the moral life we govern ourselves. In the immoral life we 
are governed by our needs and passions. — Wagner. 

Elsewhere in this work it has been said that the 
psychology of character building is summed up in four 
short sentences : " I see," " I like," " I wish I were," 
" I will be." There still remains an element not herein 
mentioned, — the power to be, — the power to direct self 
in the performance of the task involved in character 
building. The will is necessary, and we say that " where 
there's a will, there's a way," but self-direction is the 
ability to find the way quickly, to find it now, — not 
after endless effort, — to find the most direct way. This 
power to direct self according to reason rather than ac- 
cording to passion and necessity, is the secret of strong 
character, ability, and success. 

From the foregoing it will be seen that the discussion 
of the principles of self-direction involves a discussion 
of theories of life, and hence in some particulars tran- 
scends the province of purely pedagogical discussion. 
However, such phases of this subject as in no wise 
appertain to the work of the teacher and pupils in their 
relation to the school process will be omitted. 

If we consider morality as it really is, one of the 

119 



120 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

greatest aims in education, it will be readily granted 
that the discussion of this subject is clearly within the 
teachings of pedagogy. 

The State Demands the Moral Education of the People as the 
Safeguard of Order, Liberty, and Progress. 

— Motto of the Boston Public Library. 

It is from this view point that this subject is dis- 
cussed. Self-direction means more than self-control. 
Many persons are capable of controlling their own acts 
sufficiently to avoid dangers, but incapable of leading 
into an unknown region of difficulties, and must rely 
wholly upon precedent or else be without either chart or 
compass. It is not because the culprit does not know 
the law protecting private property, but because he 
could not direct his own acts under temptation to steal, 
that he becomes a criminal. 

Organized society should protect its immature and 
weak members, and direct them or place such influences 
around them as will enable them to be self-directing. 
Children are not always able under trying circumstances 
to direct themselves according to their ethical judgment, 
and one violation of conscience paves the way for an- 
other and another and another. 

Schools and churches are institutions that supplement 
the efforts of the state and family by helping in the 
work of directing the children until they are capable of 
self-direction, but sometimes these combined agencies 
fail to reach all of the little ones. 



SELF-DIRECTION 121 

The things in society or in everyday life that tend 
to hinder man in his efforts to be self-directing, to live 
and act according to reason rather than fall under the 
rule of passion and impulse, are called vices, temptations, 
and evils, from which he desires protection and from 
which the young especially should be protected by 
society. 

Since the school stands for character building, it is 
concerned in building up all forces that tend to develop 
character. On the other hand, the school is rightly 
opposed to all forces or conditions that tend to destroy 
character or prevent self -direction. It is therefore within 
our province to discuss some of these conditions. In 
order to make the discussion more concrete in its illus- 
trations, we shall describe some hypothetical cases in 
which organized society fails properly to protect those 
who are unfortunate enough to be placed in positions 
where self-direction is difficult. Our first case is only 
illustrative of the thousands who through the ineffective- 
ness of ou'r government, including schools, are not sup- 
ported in their weak efforts, and losing the power of 
self -direction, are cast out from the companionship of 
the better classes of people. 

This is one case : — 

An Orphan. — Wandering alone in want amid plenty, 
unheeded among the city's throng, is seen the frail 
body of a motherless little girl. She remembers " Thou 
shalt not steal," which mother taught her to say before 



122 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

father died, — but she is hungry, the battle is soon lost, 
and self-direction is abandoned. Twenty years pass 
by, and the November clouds shed the only tears that 
moisten the grave of a fallen woman. The courts re- 
corded her infamy, humanity condemned her life, and 
that sentence is perhaps just. Disease incident to vice 
completed its task, and at the grave an inquiring passer- 
by wonders how the Master would judge the people 
who neglected to direct and protect the orphan's life 
until self-direction became possible. 

A school for orphans, a compulsory school law pro- 
viding for the maintenance of indigent pupils, the 
sympathy and the example of some noble Christian 
teacher, in this instance, might have added a useful 
member to society and reduced the number of tragic, 
joyless lives. 

The second case is this : — 

A Drunkard. — A youth in a throng — health, wealth, 
and friends were his. He knew that he should not 
"look upon the wine when it was red," but the law of 
the land placed within his easy grasp the enchanting 
cup. Self-direction held out but a short time against 
legalized temptation. Twenty years later time wrote 
over his grave, " A ruined home, a wasted life." Men 
say he was a common drunkard — but the old man 
whose son he was is thinking, now that it is too late. 
He is wondering if the teacher could not have helped 
his wayward boy, and whether there was enough effort 



SELF-DIRECTION 123 

exerted to help his son to become self -directing ; 
whether he himself did all he could have done ; whether 
the organized society, of which he is a part, is blame- 
less. 

Gambling. — The speculative tendency of mind so 
common in our people is an excellent quality when the 
possessor is self-directing, but dangerous when his life 
is governed by passion and needs instead of reason. 

There is an element of chance even in a conservative 
business enterprise. There is an element of chance 
in every undertaking, and this unknown, unknowable 
element is one of the fascinations which are offered for 
effort. Yet, if we really produce value by our effort, the 
element of chance is far less than if we wander up and 
down seeking for hidden or uncertain treasures. 

One who undertakes to earn an honest living for him- 
self and for those who may be dependent upon him, 
has entered upon his plain duty and realizes the solid 
comfort of self-approbation. If he should not succeed 
abundantly, he may experience the pain of want, but 
not the pangs of a guilty conscience. 

When desire to speculate is not coupled with good 
business judgment, the man is a failure in business. 
The degree of success or failure may not always be 
exactly proportional to the ratio existing between de- 
sire to speculate and good business judgment, but this 
ratio is approximately correct. 

One who throws aside his judgment, depending upon 



124 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

chance, or puts aside his conscience, depending upon 
fraud, would have no consolation if unsuccessful. 

Now, there is an aim, an " ultimate Thule," to which 
each vocation tends — failure causes it to fall short of 
the mark — complete success, to reach its objective 
point. 

The laborer sees as a final achievement — content 
and competency in his own cottage home. The soldier 
sees glories won on hard-fought fields. But what is the 
highest aim of him who is a gambler ? 

Let us try to imagine the brightest picture that can 
present itself to a gambler's vision — the so-called " gam- 
bler's paradise." 

On the northwest coast of the Mediterranean, in 
one of the most beautiful spots of the Franco-Italian 
coast, lies the province of Monaco. Eight square miles, 
its area, and twelve thousand souls, its population. 
Nearly or quite half of this population is in Monte 
Carlo — the gambler's ideal resort. Splendid palaces, 
gardens of choicest flowers, marble halls flooded with 
light radiant against alabaster and gold, floating per- 
fumes filling the air which vibrates with sweetest strains 
of music. This is the "gambler's paradise." All its 
inhabitants are free from tax ; all live in luxury. 

Yes, but in this smallest of all principalities, in this 
fairest of cities, are seen more sadness and more despair 
than in any other land. The sweets of well-earned 
sleep are strangers there. Quietude of conscience, con- 
tentment, and self-approbation never stay within its 



SELF-DIRECTION 125 

borders. Early morning drives their feverish forms 
from nights of vileness to sleepless couches, or perad- 
venture to self-destruction. When they assemble in 
their marble hall around their sumptuous board without 
appetite for their first meal, — their twelve o'clock break- 
fast, — they ask wearily " who snuffed the candle last 
night ? " (meaning, who lost all and committed suicide ?) 
And ere the feet of those who bear away the bodies of 
these self-destroyed beings have returned, there are 
others, dead by their own hands. Such is the end 
toward which those who abandon self-direction tend. 
Their vocation leads contrary to the dictates of their 
inner self — they have abandoned self-direction until 
remorse dictates self-destruction. 

Clearly, these hypothecated cases indicate that there 
is great need of moral guidance for the young, and 
certainly the schools — all the factors of education — 
should help in this matter. 

The Passions. — Of the eleven passions, love, hate, 
desire, aversion, joy, sadness, hope, despondency, conrage, 
fear, and anger, which education seeks to control or 
direct in youth, at least two of the concupiscible pas- 
sions, love and joy, and two irascible passions, hope and 
conrage, are more responsive to religious influence than 
to any other power. 

In order to cultivate these virtues and in teaching 
them to recognize their true basis, which is the Christian 
religion, it is not necessary to inculcate sectarian doctrine. 



126 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

" The home life and the school life of the child should 
prepare him for transition to freedom by effective train- 
ing in self-control and self-guidance, and to this end the 
will must be disciplined by an increasing use of motives 
that quicken the sense of right and make the conscience 
regal in conduct." l 

Good Moral Character. — If we define good moral 
character as volitional inclination toward the right, this 
provisional definition will indicate clearly that the con- 
science is to be quickened by pure motives. Some of 
these motives are religious motives, but should never- 
theless be employed by the teacher. Now the first step 
in morality is to avoid doing that which is evil, but a 
step that is also necessary is to do good. The funda- 
mental conditions of a moral life are the selection of a 
considerable sphere of common good to be our end and 
aim, and an exercise of self-direction to accomplish that 
aim. Morality is grasping some picture of large good 
and translating it into fact. 

It is not possible to judge a single act. To say that 
seeking riches or reputation, or that any common act, 
is in itself evil, is erroneous. The size of the ends we 
see and serve is the measure of our own soul's dimen- 
sions, and it is the only true measure. Some ex- 
ternal act may be good for one man and bad for 
another. For instance, political office for a man 
who has solved his own problems, and has time and 

1 Emerson E. White. 



SELF-DIRECTION 127 

capacity to solve public problems, may be the very gate- 
way to heaven, while to the office seeker who is aiming 
to get out of the public a living which he is too lazy or 
too incompetent to earn in private employment, this 
same office becomes the broad and easy descent into 
hell. 

The principles of self-direction are principles of life 
which should be inculcated in the lives of the pupils 
and exemplified in the life of the teacher. A life 
directed by inner law is an ideal life. If pupils could 
be absolutely self-directing, it would be an easy matter 
to bring them from the real to the ideal state of devel- 
opment. Since pupils are not at the beginning capable 
of guiding their acts according to reason, it becomes the 
duty of the teacher by precept and example to develop 
this power in his pupils. 

Educate for Simplicity. — The first duty of him who 
exercises power is humility. A teacher who forgets 
this and assumes that he is of vast importance in a 
community is liable to receive a rude awakening. Ma- 
terial wealth, power, position, knowledge, or any other 
acquisitions are blessings if they do not serve to nourish 
pride ; but if they do, they are far from blessings. It is 
not the teacher who is the law ; the law is inherent in 
the school process, the teacher only interprets it. No 
teacher who is sensible of the responsibility resting 
upon him will feel or appear proud or vain. No teacher 
who is an example of pride can hope to cultivate sim- 



128 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

plicity in his pupils. As a teacher strives to be better 
he becomes more humble, but in this he loses naught 
of respect, for " he reaps the more respect in that he 
has sown the less pride." 

The King. — The teacher who learns well the lesson 
of self-direction ; whose life is ruled by reason ; who 
realizes that "pleasure and money are not the two 
wings of the same bird " ; who knows that egotism is a 
destroyer of pleasure ; that " to serve is to shine " ; 
who respects all men and reverences God, and whose 
life exemplifies these things, is an ideal teacher : a man 
who can — a king. 

He may occupy some unimportant place in the social 
fabric ; may stand in the most obscure place ; but by 
his life he is pointing humanity to the right life and he 
shall have his reward in the inner consciousness of hav- 
ing done right because it is right, in having attained 
the ideal life. Blessed is such a man. He who assists 
childhood to attain to such living is thrice blessed. He 
needs no pitying because the wages of teaching are 
small. Wealth to him is not essential because he has 
learned to distinguish what he has from what he is. 
He needs no friends in high places, for the lowly — the 
little children — are his friends. He needs no consola- 
tion from man because his lot is lowly ; for when the 
great Master shall stand in judgment, he shall receive a 
crown. 



REVIEW QUESTIONS 

The questions herewith submitted in no sense cover 
all the phases of pedagogy treated, nor are they in- 
tended to serve such a purpose, but rather to assist 
teachers who must study the subject alone, or to serve 
as a guide to teachers' reading circles. The teacher of 
pedagogy will, of course, frame such questions for his 
use as will call for a more careful and thorough study 
of this subject. 

CHAPTER I. — IDEATION 
Pages 3 to 8 

I. Define (a) sensation ; (b) percept; (c) memory 
image, or free idea ; (d ) concept. 

II. How are sensations modified ? (b) How are 
they formed into percepts ? 

III. Describe fully the process of perception. 

IV. How are memory images or free ideas formed ? 

V. How are new ideas analyzed ? 

VI. Describe the two currents of thought arising 
from immediate sensations and from representation. 

VII. Define (a) attention; (b) "divided" attention. 

VIII. Describe fully the process of conception. 

IX. Outline the process of ideation. 

X. Illustrate the necessity of knowing the process of 
ideation before attempting to teach. 

129 



130 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

CHAPTER II. — THE RECITATION 
Pages 9 to 18 

I. Give two prerequisites of intellectual growth. 

II. What is the duty of the teacher to (a) the over- 
confident ? (a) the self -distrustful ? 

III. Why should the earlier process of ideation, 
which gathers from immediate sensation, be emphasized 
with pupils in the lower grades ? 

IV. " The pupil, not the teacher, should do the recit- 
ing." Why ? 

V. Enumerate the different steps in the recitation. 

VI. What is meant by occupational education ? 

VII. Explain and illustrate the Socratic method of 
questioning. 

VIII. Why should the assignment of lessons usually 
be made at the beginning of the recitation ? 

IX. " IlltLstration rather than definition should be 
the rule." Why? 

X. How should the teacher bring the cultural and 
the practical into complete harmony ? 

CHAPTER III. — READING 
Pages 19 to S3 

I. Why should the words in primary readers be 
"household" words, or words with which the child is 
already familiar ? 

II. Enumerate the several formal steps in teaching 
reading. 



REVIEW QUESTIONS 131 

III. What is (a) the word method? (b) the sentence 
method ? 

IV. " Correct expression depends upon correct inter- 
pretation." What method in teaching reading is based 
upon this principle ? 

V. Why is it essential to teach correct bodily posi- 
tions in reading classes ? 

VI. Why should we emphasize the fifth step in 
reading ? 

VII. What is the "dictionary habit"? Why is this 
so important ? 

VIII. How may pupils cultivate the power to judge 
of literary values ? 

IX. Give the value of each of the two classes of 
supplementary reading. 

X. Why is constant, persistent drill in reading neces- 
sary ? 

CHAPTER IV. — ARITHMETIC 

Pages 34 to 42 

I. What are the purposes in teaching arithmetic ? 

II. What are the faults in methods shown by the 
recitation which is given in this chapter as an illustra- 
tion of poor teaching ? 

III. Why are the fundamental processes so impor- 
tant in primary grades ? 

IV. Why are " model solutions " of so little value ? 

V. What does mental arithmetic emphasize ? 

VI. Give the forty-five primary problems in addition. 



132 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

CHAPTER V. — SPELLING 

Pages 43 to 47 

I. Spelling is essentially a memory study. By what 
several means are images of words impressed upon the 
mind ? 

II. Why should pupils be taught the rules of spelling ? 

III. Is there any educational value in requiring pupils 
to use the words of the spelling lesson in original sen- 
tences ? Explain. 

IV. If in life we spell only when we write, what is 
the value of oral spelling ? 

V. What is (a) simplified spelling ? (b) phonetic 
spelling ? 

VI. How has the spelling of words in our language 
been changed ? 

VII. Give (a) a rule for omitting letters from a word; 
(b) for retaining letters that are not primarily necessary. 

CHAPTER VI. — GEOGRAPHY 
Pages 48 to 57 

I. {a) Define geography, (b) What features of geog- 
raphy should be emphasized ? 

II. How should the subject of geography be intro- 
duced ? 

III. How should measures of distance be taught? 

IV. Outline a series of lessons in mapping. 

V. What use should be made of the text-book in 
primary classes in geography ? 



REVIEW QUESTIONS 133 

VI. What is the scope of advanced geography ? 

VII. What is meant by (a) field exercises ? (b) by 
field excursions ? 

VIII. How would you emphasize the industries in 
teaching geography? 

IX. Describe a rational method of teaching map 
questions. 

CHAPTER VII. — ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR 

Pages 58 to 63 

I. In teaching elementary English what ends are 
sought ? 

II. Why is it important that the teacher should use 
correct language ? 

III. Why should the pupil be required to revise his 
own incorrect expressions ? 

IV. Give a good method of teaching letter writing. 

V. What is the value of having pupils reproduce 
given selections ? 

VI. "Use fixes knowledge." What is the practical 
value of this principle in teaching grammar ? 

VII. What parts of speech should be made the 
subject of special study ? Why ? 



CHAPTER VIII. — UNITED STATES HISTORY 
Pages 64 to 71 

I. In teaching history what powers of mind should 
be developed ? 



134 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

II. Why should elementary history be largely bio- 
graphical ? 

III. What is meant by the topical method in teaching 
history ? 

IV. In the study of war periods what points should 
be emphasized ? 

V. How should reviews be given ? 

VI. In what does the culture value of history consist? 

VII. How do we teach patriotism in the history 
class ? 

CHAPTER IX. — FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 

Pages 73 to 78 

I. Show that the school is an organism. 

II. What are the factors of the school? 

III. Why are school laws inherent in the school 
process ? 

IV. What is the logical relation of teacher and 
pupils ? 

V. Show that rational school management is an aid 
in the inculcation of the principles of morality. 

VI. Show the functions of all social organisms in- 
cluding the school. 

CHAPTER X.— CLASS MANAGEMENT 
Pages 79 to 94 

I. Should the teacher follow the classification made 
by his predecessor? 

II. Give the length of recitation in each of the eight 



REVIEW QUESTIONS 135 

grades for the reading recitation, the number or arith- 
metic recitation, and the spelling recitation. 

III. What are the advantages of class instruction 
rather than individual instruction ? 

IV. Discuss the Batavia plan. 

V. Describe the ideal plan of arrangement for study 
and recitation periods and write out an ideal program 
for a country school. 

VI. Describe proper schoolroom tactics in calling 
and dismissing classes. 

VII. What are proper seat habits for pupils ? 

VIII. Enumerate three improper seat habits and dis- 
cuss methods of correcting each. 

IX. What means should the teacher employ to secure 
neatness in the classroom ? 

X. Would you place per cents or ranks on pupils' 
report cards ? Why ? 

XL How may politeness be taught ? 

XII. Why should a strict sense of justice character- 
ize every act of the teacher ? 

XIII. What constitutes active patriotism? 

XIV. How is altruism greater than patriotism ? 



CHAPTER XI.— THE TEACHER 
Pages 95 to 105 

I. Describe the personality of the ideal teacher. 

II. Why should a teacher possess patience and sym- 
pathy ? 



136 PRACTICAL PEDAGOGY 

III. Why should "a teacher be optimistic, patriotic, 
and altruistic ? 

IV. Why should one who has not formed good bodily 
habits not be employed as a teacher ? 

V. What academic training should a grade teacher 
possess ? 

VI. What professional training should a teacher re- 
ceive ? 

VII. Why are people who have not received proper 
academic and professional training employed as 
teachers ? 

VIII. For what is the teacher responsible to (a) the 
school ? (fr) the community ? 

IX. Why should teachers not participate in question- 
able amusements ? 



CHAPTER XII. — PUNISHMENT 
Pages 106 to no 

I. What are the two general aims in securing order 
in the schoolroom ? 

II. In what way has the nature of punishment in 
school failed to keep pace with the improvement 
in the nature of punishment administered by the 
state ? 

III. In what class of cases is corporal punishment 
j ustifiable ? 

IV. How may the withholding of privileges and the 
granting of rewards aid in school discipline ? 



REVIEW QUESTIONS 137 

CHAPTER XIV. — SELF-DIRECTION 
Pages 119 to 128 

I. What is self -direction ? 

II. Why should society provide for protecting youth 
from errors ? 

III. Why are those who depend upon chance or 
fraud so despondent in case of failure ? 

IV. To what does the speculative tendency of mind 
lead when coupled with (a) good judgment and honesty ? 
(b) with a lack of conscience ? 

V. Define good moral character. 

VI. How may we " educate for simplicity " ? 



JUL 3 1908 



